Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos has been named to the 11-member board of directors of the Association of American Universities. AAU is a nonprofit organization of 62 leading public and private research universities in the United States and Canada. Its primary missions are to advance university research and higher education and to maintain the productive partnerships between research universities and the U.S. government.
AAU member institutions are on the leading edge of innovation, scholarship and solutions that contribute to the nation’s economy, security and well-being. The 60 AAU universities in the United States award nearly one-half of all U.S. doctoral degrees, and 55 percent of those are in the sciences and engineering.
“The AAU’s mission closely mirrors Vanderbilt’s own—with a high value placed on interdisciplinary research and teaching and a robust investment in the basic sciences,” Zeppos said. “Stable and sustained funding is essential to our efforts to address many of the fundamental issues our society faces, such as conservative and wise use of our energy resources, ensuring our national security and the continuing search for new treatments and cures for disease. I am proud to work with my colleagues on the AAU board and throughout the organization to champion these vital interests.”
The AAU board of directors proposes policy positions for consideration by the membership of the association, approves the budgets of the association, works with the AAU president and Washington office staff to carry out the association’s agenda, and functions for and on behalf of member universities between regular meetings.
Rice University President David W. Leebron was elected chair of the board for a one-year term, and Ohio State University President Michael V. Drake was elected vice chair at the AAU’s semiannual membership meeting, which concluded Oct. 25.
Founded in 1900 to advance the international standing of U.S. research universities, AAU today focuses on issues that are important to research-intensive universities, such as funding for research, research policy issues, and graduate and undergraduate education. Membership in AAU is by invitation and is based on the high quality of programs of academic research and scholarship and undergraduate, graduate and professional education in a number of fields, as well as general recognition that a university is outstanding by reason of the excellence of its research and education programs.