This is my first week as Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and I am settling into this dynamic campus. I am truly honored and excited to be here with all of you. USC is the place where the university of the future will be defined – a place where we want to work, study, learn, and thrive and where our educational programs, research, scholarship, creative activities and clinical care will continue to have enormous impact for positive change locally and globally. I look forward to getting to know you and to learning more about this wonderful university.
A bit about me. I am married to Barbara Morgan who runs a mail order business: David Morgan. We have two sons, one living in Berkeley, the second in Brooklyn. In deciding to come to USC, I wandered around the campus incognito. During that visit, I happened to be interviewed by Annenberg students interested in my opinion about the president’s most recent tweets. In the process, I learned about USC students and the limits of anonymity. My undergraduate degree is in Physics from Reed College where I met Barbara and spent many days in the cascades. My PhD is in Chemical Engineering from Princeton where I developed a fascination for suspensions. I built my career at the University of Illinois studying areas such as the formation mechanisms of nanoparticles, flow of dense suspensions and phase changes in protein solutions. Most recently, I spent the last seven years in Buffalo as the provost of the University at Buffalo building programs and enjoying a wonderful community and university. Barbara and I just finished our drive across the country to be here. We are very pleased to be at USC and part of the Trojan family.
I was attracted to USC by the quality of the faculty, diversity and stunning nature of programs, talent of the students, and the opportunity of working with President Folt to build on and sustain the excellence that is already in place. I see fabulous possibilities to impact the world even as we work through current challenges. As provost, I eagerly anticipate building on the existing strengths and ensuring excellence as we go forward.
Globally, higher education is undergoing rapid and disruptive transformations. These disruptions demand that we collectively harness our optimism, vision, and commitment to build the future of our imaginations. This future will be different and require us to change what we do and how we do it. However, as we undergo change, USC’s constants of creativity, innovation, rigorous education and scholarship will continue to thrive. As a result, USC will remain the destination for the very best and the source of solutions and inspiration that are world changing.
In the coming months and years, I am thrilled to work with you as we move forward to improve the world for future generations.
– Charles F. Zukoski, October 4, 2019