Immigrant of the Day: Timothy White (Argentina)

Timothy P. White, president of the University of Idaho, on May 15 was named chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, by the UC Board of Regents. The appointment will take effect on or before Sept. 1, 2008.

An immigrant from Argentina who attended all three systems of California public higher education and received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, White has three decades of experience in public research universities. He has held faculty appointments at the University of Michigan, UC Berkeley and Oregon State University, where he served as provost and executive vice president, and as president on an interim basis, before joining the University of Idaho as president in August 2004.

White, 58, has led the renewal of the University of Idaho as president, placing a focus on strategic planning, diversity, improved communication, multidisciplinary research initiatives and the fostering of a student-centered culture. His academic background is in physiology, kinesiology and human biodynamics, and he is internationally recognized for his work in muscle plasticity, injury and aging.

Born in Buenos Aires, White as a child moved with his family first to Canada and then to Northern California. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen. A first-generation college student, White began his higher education at Diablo Valley Community College in Northern California. He achieved his B.A. degree at California State University, Fresno; his M.S. degree at California State University, Hayward; and his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. Upon completion of his Ph.D., White served as a postdoctoral scholar and then faculty member at the University of Michigan, ultimately serving as chair of the Department of Kinesiology. From 1991 to 1996 he was at UC Berkeley, serving as professor and then chair of the Department of Human Biodynamics. He subsequently joined Oregon State University, where he served as dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences. In the early 2000s he served as provost and executive vice president there, and also as president on an interim basis. The University of Idaho, in Moscow, Idaho, is the state's land-grant and flagship research institution and home to the state's only law school.

Click here for the full press release.

KJ