Robert Zimmer

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Robert J. Zimmer (born November 5, 1947) is an American mathematician and academic administrator. On March 13, 2006, Zimmer was elected the thirteenth president of the University of Chicago, a position he assumed on July 1, succeeding Don Michael Randel. Previously, Zimmer was the provost of Brown University. As a mathematician, Zimmer specializes in geometry, particularly ergodic theory, Lie groups, and differential geometry.

Zimmer's presidency to date has been marked principally by his pushing for major academic reforms at Chicago ^[1], including increased funding for graduate students ^[2], new multidisciplinary research institutions in the arts and sciences ^[3], and a change by the undergraduate admissions office away from the school's "uncommon application" towards the more widely used Common Application.

Zimmer graduated from New York's Stuyvesant High School in 1964,^[4] and attended Brandeis University as an undergraduate, earning his A.B., summa cum laude, in 1968. He conducted his mathematics graduate study at Harvard University, receiving his master's degree in 1971 and his Ph.D. in 1975 under the supervision of George Mackey.

During his career, Zimmer has served as a mathematics professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of California, Berkeley in addition to Brown and the University of Chicago. Prior to leaving for Brown, he held several administrative positions at the University of Chicago, including Chairman of the Department of Mathematics, Deputy Provost, Vice President for Research, and Vice President for Argonne National Laboratory.