Agostini Prize Announcement:
As Chairman Zeiger said, we always welcome the opportunity to talk about the incredible work of Ohio State’s faculty. Today we have one such opportunity.
As you may know, earlier this year we created a new award to recognize excellence on the part of our faculty.
This new award, the Pierre Agostini Prize, is named in honor of Professor Agostini, an emeritus faculty member, whose outstanding research accomplishments won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2023. That was a remarkable moment in Ohio State history.
The Agostini Prize is our most prestigious honor for scholarly and artistic achievement.
It will be given annually to a faculty member whose work is recognized by their peers to be so groundbreaking and influential that it qualifies as “world class” and would typically be recognized with national or international awards.
Our goal in creating the Agostini Prize is to highlight our commitment as a university to the promotion of innovative and consequential research and creative expression.
In other words, we know that the work of our faculty changes and literally saves lives. We want to celebrate that accordingly.
And I am so pleased that Professor Agostini could be here in person for the naming of our inaugural recipient. Professor, we are honored to have you with us. Would you please allow us to recognize you?
This year’s Agostini Prize honoree has been chosen following a rigorous nomination and review process.
L.S. Fan is a Distinguished University Professor and C. John Easton Professor in Engineering in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. He has been a member of the faculty at Ohio State since 1978 and served as department chair from 1994 to 2003.
Professor Fan’s research focuses on creating cleaner, more efficient ways to produce energy, fuels and chemicals while reducing pollution.
One of his most important innovations is a process called chemical looping, which allows fossil fuels, biomass or plastic wastes to be used to produce energy, fuels and chemicals without releasing harmful carbon dioxide into the air.
The technology developed by Professor Fan is currently in the commercialization stage and has the potential to make power plants much cleaner while making productive use of industrial waste products. His patented processes have been licensed to a number of major companies.
Professor Fan’s record of excellence has brought significant recognition to our university. He is a member of the National Academies of Engineering or Sciences in several countries, including the United States, and he is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
His pioneering contributions have earned him more than 100 awards and honors globally from various academic, industrial, governmental and professional entities.
In addition, Professor Fan has advised hundreds of students at the bachelor’s, masters, Ph.D. and post-doctoral levels, helping to prepare the next generation of innovators.
His work is widely regarded by his peers as highly consequential. And we are proud today to add to Professor Fan’s long list of honors by naming him the inaugural recipient of the Pierre Agostini Prize.
Dr. Fan, on behalf of all of us at Ohio State, congratulations. We are proud of all that you’ve accomplished and grateful for everything you do to support students and improve lives in Ohio and beyond.
President’s Regular Report:
I’m not sure I can top an award presentation as exciting as that one, so I will keep my remarks brief.
Let me start by continuing our theme of recognizing excellence.
As the Chairman mentioned, today is the final Board meeting for two of our trustees: Vice Chairman Alan Stockmeister, who has served on the Board since 2017; and Josh Kerner, who is concluding his term as the undergraduate student trustee.
Alan, thank you for the exceptional leadership you have brought to the Board and your service to Ohio State. I’m grateful for your support and we know you will continue to be a champion for our university and all of Ohio.
Josh, it’s a privilege to have strong student leadership represented on our board. Thank you for your advice and advocacy on behalf of Ohio State’s undergraduate students. We know you have a bright future ahead.
Please join me in recognizing our two outgoing trustees.
We are also welcoming new talent to our team.
Pending your approval, we have made two appointments to our leadership team that I’m personally very excited about.
First, we have named Dr. Kimryn Rathmell as chief executive officer of The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.
Dr. Rathmell most recently served as director of the National Cancer Institute and I could not be more pleased to welcome her to Ohio State. I know Dr. Warner shares that excitement. I’m confident that under Dr. Rathmell’s leadership, we will make great strides toward our vision of creating a cancer-free world.
We’ve also appointed Aravind Chandrasekaran as interim dean of the Fisher College of Business for a two-year period.
AC has been on the faculty since 2009 and is highly regarded by the Fisher community. Our business college already ranks among the nation’s best, and AC is the right leader to guide us to an even higher level of excellence.
It was a busy spring at Ohio State, culminating in our commencement ceremony where we awarded approximately 12,000 degrees to the next generation of Ohio’s leaders.
Our strong graduating classes are a great testament to the trust and confidence that students and families have in the quality and value of an Ohio State education. I know we will see great things from the Class of 2025.
We have been engaging extensively with the Ohio State community, both here in Ohio and outside the state.
Last month I was excited to be part of my second Scarlet and Gray breakfast in Washington, D.C., where we had the opportunity to engage with Buckeye alumni in the nation’s capital and spend time with members of Ohio’s congressional delegation.
We heard an excellent keynote address from Congressman Troy Balderson, who represents our Newark campus and is a strong advocate for the students and programs there.
At a time when our leaders are wrestling with a number of difficult issues in Washington, I’m encouraged that there are things that bring us together. One of those is the support that Ohioans have for their flagship university and the shared belief that education is crucial for the future success and growth of our state and nation.
I want to thank all the friends who joined us in Washington including the members of this Board who were able to attend.
Speaking of our nation’s capital… we also made a trip there for our national champion football team to be recognized at the White House. It was a wonderful opportunity for the excellence of our student-athletes, our coaches and staff to be recognized at the highest level.
And we were honored a few weeks ago when Governor DeWine and members of the House and Senate also recognized the team.
By the way… the NCAA recently released new Academic Progress Rate data for Division I programs. You may remember that previously our football team was one of only two DI programs in the country with a perfect APR.
This time, there is one D1 football program with a perfect multi-year APR. That program is The Ohio State University.
I want to congratulate the student-athletes on their success, as well as Coach Day and our staff, who recognize that the primary goal of the university is to educate. Our student-athletes are students first.
And congratulations to our men’s and women’s cross country programs, men’s fencing, men’s golf, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball for also achieving perfect multi-year APRs.
Athletic Director Ross Bjork is creating a culture of excellence in our department and I’m very pleased that we are succeeding in athletics AND academics.
I had the pleasure of delivering the Patterson Land-Grant University Lecture, where I talked about the opportunity and responsibility for universities like ours to make a pivot in this new era for higher education.
As I said in my remarks, the future of higher education will run through America’s land-grant institutions. Our unique mission to serve the communities of which we are a part gives us a path forward a time when the value of higher education is under question.
Those institutions that take the opportunity to think differently about the future, will thrive. I think Ohio State will be one of those and in fact that we will lead the way forward.
Not unrelated, I recently teamed up with Shereen Agrawal, director of our Center for Software Innovation, for a talk in front of 800 of Ohio’s tech leaders about how our state is establishing itself as a hub for tech innovation.
Ohio State is a major player in this work. Technology, artificial intelligence and computing are key elements of our vision for the future, particularly when it comes to attracting talent and building a “future-ready” workforce. Every student should leave Ohio State with a basic fluency in the ethical use of AI. I’m excited about our leadership potential in this space.
Finally, most of you joined us for the recent celebration of our Time and Change campaign, which will have a transformative impact for current and future students at Ohio State.
Private philanthropy allows us to expand our reach and impact further than what would otherwise be possible. We are so grateful to the friends and alumni who believe in our mission and generously give to student scholarships, faculty endowed chairs, outstanding academic programs and more.
The greatest point of pride to me about Time and Change is that some 813,000 unique donors contributed to this campaign. That’s a powerful statement of belief in the work we do.
I could not be more grateful, and I know Mike Eicher would say the same, for each and every individual who has been part of this historic effort, whether through gifts of time or treasure or the behind-the-scenes work on the part of our staff to make it a success. Our upward trajectory is even more exciting because of your collective efforts.
Let me conclude with a few comments about Senate Bill 1, which as you know was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the Governor.
As a public institution, we will follow the law, and we have been working quickly to stand up a team to guide our campus on implementing the various elements of the bill.
Most provisions of SB1 take effect on June 27. Our implementation efforts are underway in earnest. Students, faculty and staff from across the university are engaged in the work, and every college and regional campus is represented.
We will soon launch a centralized webpage dedicated to SB1 implementation and we are providing regular updates to the campus community on our work.
I want to especially thank Provost Bellamkonda, Anne Garcia and Stacy Rastauskas for leading this process. We have a significant amount of work in front of us and I’m grateful for their leadership in moving us to compliance.
Our priority in this effort is maintaining the fundamental commitment that we make to all Ohioans: That we are a place where all are welcome, and where students, faculty and staff have the support they need to successfully learn, teach and do life-saving research. Our mission is more important than ever and I am confident in our ability to deliver.
This concludes my report.