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Paul Gray steps down from administrative post to return to EECS faculty
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Paul Gray
PEG SKORPINSKI PHOTO
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Paul Gray steps down as Berkeley's executive vice chancellor and provost on June 30 to return to the College, where he holds the Andrew S. Grove Chair in Electrical Engineering. He will be succeeded by political science professor and Russia scholar George Breslauer. Gray joined the EECS faculty in 1971 and has served as an administrator for 16 years, first as EECS chair (1990–93) and engineering dean (1996–2000), then becoming vice chancellor, the second highest administrative post on campus, in 2000. He answered a few questions for Forefront as he prepared to make the transition back to his faculty position.
Q. What first inspired you to become an engineer?
A. I loved tinkering with cars and model airplanes. In college, EE had a reputation of being hard and, being a competitive type, I decided to do that. I developed enthusiasm for electronics and integrated circuit design, so after graduate school the natural place to go was the Silicon Valley. Back in the ’60s, the total combined annual sales of the semiconductor industry was about $500 million yearly. Today it is approaching $300 billion worldwide and provides a steady stream of challenging research problems to work on.
Q. What do you like most about Berkeley?
A. The richness of the campus community is its strength. The alumni, faculty, staff, students and local community form a mosaic that is always stimulating and interesting.
Q. What accomplishment are you especially proud of?
A. These jobs are all about people. Most of the important things that happen here are done by faculty, faculty leaders, their staff, and the students they work with. The most important task is to recruit, empower and support campus leaders and do everything possible to help them succeed.
Q. What are you most looking forward to about returning to the faculty?
A. I really miss working with graduate students and the satisfaction that comes when a student gets intuitive new insights. Often, through that process, the teacher gains new insights too.
Q. How have your skills as an engineer suited you for administration?
A. Engineers don’t have a monopoly on problem-solving, but the habit of taking big problems, breaking them into smaller problems, and solving each of those individually, often with teams working in parallel, was a help.
Q. Who has been your most important role model?
A. The most significant would be the late Don Pederson, who was a senior faculty colleague during my early years here. Don was a person of inspirational energy, integrity and intellect who had tremendous influence on me and many colleagues. |
