Chrysostomos L. ("Max") Nikias

A Greek from Cyprus, Chrysostomos L. (”Max”) Nikias, will become the 11th president of the University of Southern California on August 3, 2010. His appointment was announced today by Edward P. Roski Jr., chairman of the USC Board of Trustees.

Nikias will succeed Steven B. Sample, who has led USC since 1991. In November 2009, Sample announced his decision to retire August 2, 2010.

Over the course of his career as a researcher, educator and university administrator, Nikias has earned accolades for his leadership, innovation and fundraising, as well as his ability to build partnerships among varied constituencies.

As USC executive vice president and provost, President Sample’s second-ranking officer since 2005, Nikias is credited with accelerating the university’s recent academic momentum, recruiting new leadership, strengthening the academic medical enterprise, helping attract a series of major donations to the institution, creating innovative cross-disciplinary programs, enhancing the university’s globalization efforts and increasing support for students at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels.

Nikias’ selection by the Board of Trustees followed a search process that involved an advisory committee of trustees and senior faculty representatives, working with R. William Funk & Associates, one of the nation’s premier search consulting firms serving higher education. Between November 2009 and January 2010 the advisory committee met with 15 key USC constituent groups, including students, faculty, alumni leaders, community representatives, staff, and various university supporters and friends. After reviewing approximately 75 candidates, the committee interviewed seven finalists, all of whom were sitting presidents or provosts at major universities.

“It is a testament to Max Nikias’ abilities that, from such an impressive group of educators, he was unanimously recommended by the advisory committee,” Roski said. “During his 19 years as a faculty member and administrator at USC, he has provided distinguished service to the university in a variety of roles. He is a remarkable and inspiring leader, a brilliant scholar, and the best possible person to lead our university forward.”

President Sample praised the appointment: “I have long believed that Max Nikias is one of the country’s most talented provosts. I’m delighted to have a successor whose keen vision and energy will keep the university moving ahead at a rapid pace. USC will be in excellent hands with Max as president.”

“It is the greatest honor to be given this opportunity by USC’s Board of Trustees to work toward realizing the dreams and aspirations of the Trojan Family,” Nikias said. “The trustees have committed themselves wholeheartedly to continuing the historic, rapid ascent begun by Steve Sample — and even to accelerating USC’s momentum based on opportunities that lie before us.

“This incredible, wide-ranging university represents an electric environment, one remarkably skilled at producing new ideas and new leaders to strengthen our society. Moving USC forward, and accelerating its breathtaking momentum, strikes me as the most rewarding endeavor in American higher education today.”

Added Nikias: “For the next five months, of course, USC continues to be led by Steve Sample, who has been America’s most dynamic and successful university president. He and his wife, Kathryn, have left as their legacy a university that has attained global stature. The only proper way to honor this legacy is to take a great university and make it even greater.

“It has been said that the only sure way to predict the future is to invent it. And because USC’s faculty, students, alumni and staff comprise a global intellectual community of unsurpassed breadth, energy and dedication, I have exceeding confidence in USC’s own future. My wife, Niki, and I and our daughters love being a ‘Trojan family,’ and we love being a part of the greater Trojan Family. To be able, then, to lead this Trojan Family forward now is the opportunity of a lifetime, as we write together the next chapter in USC’s extraordinary history.”

After being named provost in 2005, Nikias worked with faculty and deans to develop a number of new programs to create a distinct academic environment at USC.

In order to enhance the undergraduate experience for USC students, he established new scholarship programs that reward innovative scholarship and global academic immersion, and sponsored a USC arts curriculum that encourages cross-arts interdisciplinary programs, including minors, progressive degrees, joint degrees and joint classes. He also drove the creation of USC’s groundbreaking Visions and Voices initiative in the arts and the humanities, which has drawn tens of thousands of undergraduates from all disciplines to a range of artistic and cultural programming.

Nikias launched other initiatives, including a quintupling of funding for Ph.D. fellowships, to $20 million per year; a grant program for advancing scholarship in the humanities and social sciences; and a program to recruit leading interdisciplinary scholars as Provost’s Professors.

He recruited new leadership to the Keck School of Medicine, spearheaded the integration of the school’s 19 Faculty Practice Plans, and oversaw the transfer of the University Hospital and Norris Cancer Center from Tenet Healthcare Corporation to USC.

Nikias was also instrumental in negotiating on behalf of the university the relocation of the Shoah Foundation — originally established by filmmaker and USC trustee Steven Spielberg — and the establishment of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education.

He established an Office of Research Advancement in Washington, D.C., which has been directly responsible for helping faculty win more than $140 million in federal research funding in the past 30 months.

Nikias is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the California Council on Science and Technology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the recipient of the 2008 IEEE Simon Ramo Medal.

In April 2008, he was named inaugural holder of the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities, USC’s first endowed faculty position honoring exceptional achievements in both realms. Each fall, he teaches an orientation-week seminar to incoming freshmen on the development of democracy and the dramatic arts within ancient Athens.

Nikias was recruited to USC in 1991 to develop a national-caliber center for multimedia research, and became the founding director and principal investigator for the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC). In a fierce competition in 1996, the IMSC proposal to NSF was ranked first out of 117, including proposals from America’s top-ranked research universities.

He served as dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering from 2001 to 2005. During a fundraising campaign that lasted less than four years, he secured a naming gift from Andrew J. and Erna Viterbi, as well as other gifts from major donors and institutions for individual academic departments and institutes. Nikias was the only dean in USC’s history to secure more than $200 million in such a brief period of time. Nikias recruited 30 world class faculty members to the USC Viterbi School and also tripled the number of women on the faculty.

He graduated with honors from the Famagusta Gymnasium, a school in Cyprus that emphasizes sciences, history and Greco-Roman classics. He received a diploma from the National Technical University of Athens, also known as National Metsovion Polytechnic, the oldest and most prestigious higher education institution of Greece. He earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo before holding faculty appointments at the University of Connecticut (1982-85) and Northeastern University (1985-91).

Nikias has been a high-level technical consultant to the department of defense, holding a security clearance for 15 years. He has authored more than 95 peer-reviewed journal articles, 180 refereed conference papers, three textbooks, and eight patents. Three of his publications received best paper awards.

He lives on the Palos Verdes Peninsula with his wife, Niki, and their two daughters, Georgiana and Maria, both of whom attend USC.

Forbes’ 2010 list of the world’s billionaires released Wednesday again includes several Greeks or Greek-Americans. Below you can see the list with the five Greek-Americans that made the list starting with their position, name, age and net worth.

437 George Mitchell, age 90, $2.2
536 Michael Jaharis, age 81, $1.9
616 John Catsimatidis, age 61, $1.6
655 George Argyros, age 73, $1.5
880 Alexander Spanos, age 86, $1.1

Two others that made the billionaires’ list are Spiros Latsis and Phillipp Niarchos who reside in Europe. Mike Lazaridis, the Greek-Canadian CEO who developed the blackberry cellphones, was also included in the Forbes list.

Below is a basic set of facts that explains what it means for Greek citizens now that Greece has been designated a visa waiver nation.

1. Greek citizens will be able to visit the United States without visas in approximately 30 days from the Department of Homeland Security’s March 9, 2010 announcement.
2. Greek citizens are permitted to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa for tourism or business purposes only. Visits for purposes of attending school or working do not apply in the Visa Waiver Program.
3. Greek citizens will be required to apply for an Electronic System Travel Authorization (ESTA) through the Web-based system.
4. Greek citizens can apply/register with ESTA immediately. Visit esta.cbp.dhs.gov to apply.
5. Registration with ESTA lasts for two years unless your passport expiration date is within that two-year period; then it lasts as long as the passport does.
6. A new ESTA is require if basic biographical information changes (i.e., a name change due to marriage).

(Source: Department of Homeland Security, http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1268162593062.shtm. via AHEPA newsletter)

Archbishop Demetrios, the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America talks exclusively to “GR” about his role in the US, and the relationship of the Greek Church with the White House throughout the years.

Archbishop Demetrios, President Obama, and Greek PM George Papandreou at the White House on March 9th 2010

President Obama celebrated Greek Independence Day on Tuesday March 9th this year. Archbishop Demetrios, Vice president Joe Biden and the Secretary of State Hilary Clinton were present for the Greek Independence day celebration. Greek Prime minister George Papandreou who earlier had a meeting with president was also present at the East Wing where the party took place.

The reason for celebrating two weeks earlier instead of the actual day on March 25th is because the President has a very heavy schedule and will be out of the country on the 25th of the month.

“Greek Independence Day isn’t for another few weeks. But I’ll be on a trip to Asia, so I appreciate you coming early — not that Greeks have ever needed an excuse to celebrate, let’s face it,” the president joked.

President Obama acknowledged that the country is facing troubling times but tried not to talk too much about it since this was a celebration.

“Like his father and his grandfather before him, the Prime Minister is leading Greece through challenging times. But as I told him during our meeting in the Oval Office today, whether in good times or in bad times, the people of Greece will always have a friend and a partner in the United States of America.”

Mr. Obama used the Greek word “philotimo,” throughout this speech and said he grew up with Ancient Greek myths.

Archbishop Demetrios, the Ambassadors of Greece and Cyprus and members of congress, were present. In his closing remarks President Obama referred to his basketball buddy and friend Alexi Giannoulias saying “we’ve got at least one potential member of Congress” referring to Giannoulias candidancy for Senate in Illinois.

Speaking to reporters, Papandreou termed the visa waiver “a vote of confidence” to Greece and noted that the Greek government is determined to respond to its obligations and cooperate closely at international level on the tackling of terrorism.

“I briefed President Obama on the state of the economy in our country and on the determination that we showed in taking difficult measures,” Papandreou said, underlining that with the institutional changes being promoted by his government not only in the economy but in other sectors also such as education, health and public administration the country is entering a course of sustainable growth and is becoming competitive and attractive.

The Greek prime minister stressed that he briefed the US president on his and other European leaders’s initiative such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarcozy and eurozone president Jean Claude Juncker that aims at confronting profiteers and restoring Greece’s image in international markets.

Papandreou called on the US to contribute to a common direction with the European countries at the next G20 summit. The Greek prime minister said that the US president reassured him that he considers this initiative useful and positive and that the US will move in the same direction so that “order is put in the international markets.”

The prime minister made it clear that Greece did not request economic aid from the US and termed “every voice of support positive,” particularly when it comes from the biggest economy and the strongest country in the world politically, while speaking of “recognition of the difficult measures that we are taking.”

Papandreou also said that apart from the economy, he discussed with President Obama Greece’s initiative for the accession of all the countries of the western Balkans to the European Union by 2014, a development that he characterised as being stabilising for peace in the wider region and the solving of specific bilateral problems. As regards relations with Turkey, Papandreou briefed the US president on the visit to Athens by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in the coming months, as well as on the will of the Greek side to revive the procedure on the normalisation of Greek-Turkish relations and the solving of differences, such as the case of the continental shelf.

(source: ana-mpa)

The Full Schedule of Greek PM’s visit:

Monday 10:30, Speech at Brookings Institution, later meeting with Hillary Clinton
Monday 19:30, dinner in honor of Archbishop Demetrios.
Tuesday 11:00 meeting with Nancy Pelosi.
Tuesday 14:00, Meeting with President Obama and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner
Tuesday 18:45, meeting with former President Bill Clinton
Tuesday 19:30, Dinner in honor of George Papandreou at Ritz Carlton Hotel
Wednesday 11:00, press conference at the Greek Embassy

Watch the PM’s speech below:

The Greek Prime Minister will meet tomorrow with President Obama during his first official visit to the United States.