Andrew Hamilton

Andrew Hamilton became the 16th president of New York University on January 1, 2016. Under President Hamilton’s leadership, NYU has made significant advances. Applications for first-year admission have increased by 40 percent, and this fall the University welcomed the most selective and diverse freshman class in its history. Since President Hamilton’s arrival, NYU has increased its research expenditures at a rate higher than any other U.S. college or university. It has reached all-time highs in rankings of both national and international universities. At the same time, President Hamilton put into place the lowest year-to-year increase in cost-of-attendance in two decades, in support of his priority of making NYU more affordable and accessible. President Andrew Hamilton President Andrew Hamilton Before coming to NYU, Dr. Hamilton served as the vice chancellor of Oxford University—the university’s senior-most officer—a post he held since 2009. His tenure as vice chancellor was distinguished by significant improvements in university governance and faculty relations; the launch of a new School of Government and the expansion of the business school; the enhancement of interdisciplinary research and teaching; the restructuring of Oxford’s medical school and hospital into a modern academic medical center; and the improvement of the university’s physical infrastructure, among other initiatives. Before being named as Oxford’s vice chancellor, Dr. Hamilton served as provost (2004–08) of Yale University; he had previously been Yale’s deputy provost for science and technology. Hamilton in the New York chemistry lab with professor James Canary Hamilton in the New York chemistry lab with professor James Canary Photo: President Andrew Hamilton in Abu Dhabi President Andrew Hamilton in Abu Dhabi Photo: President Andrew Hamilton in Shanghai President Andrew Hamilton in Shanghai In addition to his record as an academic leader, Dr. Hamilton is an award-winning, widely published chemist, and he has continued to maintain his scholarly work—including an active research laboratory—while holding leadership positions. His area of scholarly interest lies at the intersection of organic and biologic chemistry, with particular focus on the use of synthetic design for the understanding, mimicry, and potential disruption of biological processes. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the recipient of the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society, and the winner of the International Izatt-Christiansen Award for Macrocyclic Chemistry. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education. At Yale—where he joined the faculty in 1997—he was the Benjamin Silliman Professor of Chemistry and professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry. Prior to joining Yale’s faculty, he was a tenured professor of chemistry and chair of the chemistry department at the University of Pittsburgh. Before joining the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, he was an assistant professor of chemistry at Princeton University. President Hamilton was born in 1952 in Guildford, Surrey, UK. He received a first class BSc from the University of Exeter, his master’s degree from the University of British Columbia, and his doctorate from the University of Cambridge. He did post-doctoral work at the Université Louis Pasteur. University Initiatives Learn more about President Hamilton's priorities and university initiatives He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Surrey, Tsinghua University, Koç University, and the University of Exeter, among others. President Hamilton and his wife, Jennie, have three adult children, all of whom live in the United States. They welcomed their first grandchild in 2018.