Santa J Ono

Santa J. Ono, an accomplished biomedical researcher and the president and vice chancellor of the University of British Columbia, has been named the 15th president of the University of Michigan. The Board of Regents voted unanimously to appoint Ono during a special meeting July 13 2022. Santa J. Ono was 15th President & Vice-Chancellor at The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada. Ono, 59, is an experienced vision researcher whose pioneering work in experimental medicine focuses on the immune system and eye disease. Ono, who is of Japanese heritage, is the first Asian American to lead U-M. He was born in Vancouver and grew up in Pennsylvania and Maryland, earned a bachelor’s degree in biological science at the University of Chicago and a doctorate in experimental medicine from McGill University in Montreal. He has taught at Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University and University College London. While at the University of Cincinnati, he also served as a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Ono’s five-year term as president will begin Oct. 13 2022. He succeeds Mary Sue Coleman, who has been serving on an interim basis since the board removed former president Mark Schlissel on Jan. 15 2022. She will continue in the role until Ono begins. Coleman led the university as its 13th president from 2002-14. Ono is married to Wendy Yip, who trained as an immunologist at McGill and as a lawyer at Boston University. They have two daughters, Juliana and Sarah.