I want to join in the tremendous enthusiasm about the naming of Mark Schlissel as the university’s 14th president. I’m thrilled they picked another biochemist!
I also want to thank the Presidential Search Committee and the faculty of the Search Advisory Committee for their thoughtful, diligent work.
Dr. Schlissel, welcome to a university unlike any other. You will find the Michigan community to be engaging, thoughtful, energetic and impassioned about making a difference.
More than any characteristic, it is a community of academic excellence.
Our students, faculty, staff and alumni have a profound affection for this institution, which I am certain you yourself will come to embrace.
When the university’s first president, Henry Philip Tappan, laid out his vision for Michigan, he described a “great center of intellectual activity, and a fountain of learning open to the whole populace.”
That vision has been realized again and again.
In addition to leading an exceptional university, you and your wife, Monica, are joining a remarkable community and state — both of which look to U-M for ideas, solutions and talent.
I have often said that being president of the University of Michigan is the best job in the country. I could not be more pleased to know that you, as the 14th president, will soon experience this firsthand.
Again, welcome and Go Blue.
