Daniels leaving Purdue presidency at end of year
Staff report
The Purdue Board of Trustees announced Friday that Purdue Engineering Dean Dr. Mung Chiang will succeed current president Mitch Daniels, who served two terms as Indiana governor, effective Jan. 1, 2023.
Daniels has served since January 2013, after he left the governor’s office.
Board of Trustees Chairman Michael Berghoff said thanked Daniels for his service, saying, “The last decade has seen Purdue attain unprecedented levels of national recognition, reflected in record enrollments, academic rankings, and overall reputation,” according to a Purdue University press release. “Mung is the ideal choice to lead Purdue into its next ‘giant leap.’ The board could not be more confident in this selection, as we have had the opportunity to observe his performance across a broad range of duties for five years.”
Chiang, who’s also Purdue’s executive vice president for strategic initiatives, received praise for growing the College of Engineering at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and setting new school records for both government and industry-sponsored research funding. Chiang earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and mathematics and master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford
University. He came to Purdue from Princeton University, where he was the first chairman of Princeton’s Entrepreneurial Council. He holds 25 patents.
Chiang praised Daniels’ leadership in a statement, “President Daniels built Purdue into the most consequential public university in the United States. Under Mitch’s leadership, our university attained the strongest academic reputation, from record-breaking enrollment to all-time-high research excellence, from the Ever True campaign to the transformed campus. Purdue led the country in safely reopening during the pandemic, while its financial foundation is fortified stronger than ever before. But there’s even more. Mitch is also the most innovative president in America: affordability through tuition freeze, 21st century land grant through Purdue Global, and economic growth in Indiana through entrepreneurship and the Discovery Park District in West Lafayette.”
Under Chiang ’s five years at Purdue, he has led his the College of Engineering has achieved to its highest rankings ever, No. 4 among graduate programs, No. 3 for online programs, and No. 10 for undergraduate education, and it is the largest undergraduate program in the nation’s top 10, according to a university release.