Mung Chiang named next president of Northwestern

Chiang arrived in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 2017 to serve as Purdue’s dean of the College of Engineering and quickly made an impact, overseeing a rapid and sustained rise in the college’s academic rankings, research funding, student success and donor contributions. In 2021, he was appointed executive vice president for strategic initiatives, in addition to his deanship, before being selected as Purdue’s president in June 2022.

A first-generation immigrant and the first Asian American president of Northwestern University (who will become the Asian American president who is serving the highest U.S. News-ranked university in the country), Chiang knows firsthand how lives can be transformed through access, opportunity and the sharing of ideas across different backgrounds and perspectives. Chiang has also consistently prioritized free speech and free expression as essential to driving excellence at scale.

“Mung has his sights set on advancing and enhancing Northwestern among the world’s great research institutions,” said Peter Barris, chair of Northwestern’s Board of Trustees. “Through his stellar academic and administrative leadership at multiple institutions, Mung has demonstrated his ability to harness opportunity and momentum while embracing the breadth and depth of a university. My fellow board members could not be more thrilled for Mung to lead Northwestern into the future.”

Prior to his tenure at Purdue, Chiang spent 14 years at Princeton University, rising from assistant professor to one of the youngest chair professors at the university. He also served as the inaugural chairman of the Princeton Entrepreneurship Council and the director of the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education.

Chiang received the Distinguished Teaching Award in Engineering (2016) at Princeton University for creating an interdisciplinary undergraduate course and implanting a “flipped classroom” modality. In 2009, he founded the Princeton EDGE Lab, which is focused on bridging the gap between theory and practice in networking research. He also co-founded multiple startup companies and industry consortia. He holds 26 U.S. patents, most of which are licensed for network deployment.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and mathematics, as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering, all from Stanford. In 2025, he received an Honorary Doctorate in Science from Dartmouth College.

Chiang is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. He has received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Founders Medal (one of the most prestigious awards in engineering disciplines), National Science Foundation Alan T. Waterman Award (the highest U.S. government honor for researchers under age 40), and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among many other distinguished awards.

“The committee was looking for a leader to advance the mission of the University with energy, creativity and curiosity, across the full range of scholarship, teaching and public service,” said Ian Hurd, a professor of political science who serves as president of the Faculty Senate and was a member of the Presidential Search Committee. “With Mung Chiang, we found a dynamic Wildcat to lead Northwestern, one who evinces passionate commitment to what a great university makes possible — for students, scholars and society. I look forward to welcoming him to Northwestern.”

Chiang helped design and implement the federal CHIPS and Science Act, and at Purdue secured $3.9 billion in investments to build an AI memory chip advanced packaging facility at the University. He launched Purdue’s first urban campus in Indianapolis in an effort to grow innovation and talent.

Under Chiang’s leadership, Purdue had its most selective incoming class, the highest graduation rate and the most successful fundraising year, as well as the largest federal research grants and the largest industry research grant in the school’s history.

“Mung Chiang is a distinguished scholar who brings understanding and experience in the complexities of research-intense universities, along with a proven ability to grow the resources that power discovery,” said Susan Quaggin, who served on the Presidential Search Committee and chairs the Department of Medicine at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “His genuine commitment to faculty, students and staff and his ability to bring people and ideas together across disciplines to deliver results are exactly what Northwestern needs to remain at the forefront of innovation.”

Chiang’s research focuses on the optimization of networks, fog networking and the Internet of Things, smart data pricing and network economics, social learning networks and online social networks.

In 2020, he was appointed to the nonpartisan position of science and technology advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State — the first engineer to hold that position — and in 2024 he was appointed by the Secretary of Energy to the inaugural board of the congressionally chartered U.S. Foundation for Energy Security and Innovation, which he currently chairs. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Under Chiang’s presidency, Purdue’s men’s basketball team reached the national championship game, and during the 2024-25 school year, 248 Purdue athletes earned Academic All-Big Ten honors.

“Every great institution has its own culture and distinct traditions, and I am looking forward to learning Northwestern’s,” Chiang said. “Our purple is proudly unique, and there is no university quite like Northwestern. I am truly excited to join the Northwestern community.”