University of Southern California
Steven B. Sample became the 10th president of the University of Southern California in March 1991. He is the university’s first holder of the Robert C. Packard President’s Chair.
Sample is an electrical engineer, a musician, an outdoorsman, an author and an inventor. In February 1998 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to consumer electronics and leadership in interdisciplinary research and education. In 2003 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of his accomplishments as a university president.
Sample has chaired a number of statewide and national groups examining the state of elementary, secondary, and higher education. In 1994 he convened a group of Los Angeles leaders which was awarded a historic $53 million challenge grant from the Annenberg Foundation to accelerate reforms in local public schools. Sample co-founded the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), a consortium of 34 premier Pacific Rim research universities located in 15 countries. He is a past chairman of the Association of American Universities (AAU), a consortium of the 63 leading North American research universities. He chaired a special AAU committee on postdoctoral education, and co-chaired an AAU task force on increasing protection for human subjects in university-based research. |
