Satish Tripathi

Dr. Tripathi, who served as UB’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs from 2004-2011, was one of the principal creators of the UB 2020 strategic plan to achieve academic research excellence, and has led the university to achieve significant growth in research and scholarly activity, enhanced student quality and diversity, and an expanded international presence. Building on this strong foundation, Dr. Tripathi’s vision for UB’s future focuses on moving the university into the highest ranks of the nation’s leading research universities through expanding its reach and impact locally as well as globally. As Provost, Dr. Tripathi led the recruitment of many prominent faculty to the university and oversaw a significant increase in the number of faculty hired to develop and enhance strengths in key areas of research and scholarly activity. As a result, the university achieved substantial increases in research expenditures and federally awarded research grants, putting UB in league with the top national research universities in the United States. Under Dr. Tripathi’s leadership, the academic profile of UB’s undergraduate and graduate students has improved significantly, as the university enrolled its most academically talented freshman class in each of the past three years. Dr. Tripathi also led efforts to enrich the educational experiences of UB undergraduate students by introducing programs designed to provide them with opportunities to engage in learning and research with UB’s top faculty. He also oversaw development of new learning and library facilities on campus, and new “living-learning environments” within the new John & Editha Kapoor Hall, Barbara and Jack Davis Hall, and William R. Greiner Hall, all constructed as part of “Building UB,” the university’s comprehensive physical plan. Tripathi also led a strategic planning process for UB’s international programs that has led to significant expansion of the university’s international presence and the continued globalization of its three Western New York campuses. He signed a memorandum of understanding in 2005 with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to establish the Indo-U.S. Inter-University Collaborative Initiative in Higher Education and Research. This memorandum led to a partnership between UB and Amrita University on collaborative activities that include dual-master’s-degree programs in management and computer science. UB’s educational programs in Singapore, in partnership with the Singapore Institute of Management, also experienced significant growth under Dr. Tripathi’s leadership. Prior to joining the UB community in 2004, Dr. Tripathi served as dean of the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California-Riverside from 1997-2004. Previously, Dr. Tripathi was a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, where his 19-year tenure on the faculty member included serving as chair from 1988-95. He also has held visiting professorships at the University of Paris-Sud in France and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. The first international-born president in UB’s history, Dr. Tripathi graduated top of his class from Banaras Hindu University in India. In addition to a doctorate in computer science from the University of Toronto, he holds three master's degrees—one in computer science from the University of Toronto and two in statistics from the University of Alberta and Banaras Hindu University. He was awarded the honorary doctorate of sciences from the prestigious Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, the university’s highest degree. A fellow of the IEEE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Tripathi has published more than 200 scholarly papers, supervised more than 30 doctoral and postdoctoral students and served on program committees of numerous international conferences. An active leader in the regional community, he is a member of the board of directors of the Buffalo Urban League and was recently appointed by Governor Cuomo as co-chair of the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council.