C. L. Max Nikias became the University of Southern California’s eleventh president in August 2010. He holds the Robert C. Packard President’s Chair and the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities, and chairs the USC Health System Board. He has been at USC since 1991, as a professor, director of national research centers, dean, provost, and now president. He holds faculty appointments in both electrical engineering and the classics. Additionally, he leads special freshman seminars each fall on ancient Athenian democracy and drama.

Nikias is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a charter fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among numerous other honors, he has received the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and honorary doctorates from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion and the University of Cyprus.