USC Provost Michael Amiridis was named the University of Illinois Chicago's new chancellor Thursday, according to a UIC release.
Amiridis, who currently serves as USC's provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, will head to Chicago after nearly 20 years at USC as a professor, researcher and administrator. Pending UIC Board of Trustees approval, he would succeed Paula Allen-Meares, whose six-year term as chancellor will end Jan. 15. Trustees will vote whether to approve Amiridis the same day.
In the meantime, USC President Harris Pastides is moving to form a search committee and start a nation-wide search to fill the soon-to-be-vacant provost position.
"My intention is to identify exceptional candidates representing diverse backgrounds and to invite finalists to campus later in the spring semester," Pastides said in an email to USC faculty Thursday afternoon. "I hope to have a new provost in place before the 2015 fall semester begins."
In an email to the USC President's Executive Council and Council of Academic Deans Thursday, Amiridis said though the move is a bittersweet one, but he's anticipating a smooth transition.
"We are confident that this will be achieved with no disruption to our day-to-day operations and long term plans," he wrote. "I strongly believe that our academic enterprise is in excellent shape right now and no change in personnel can affect its current state or future potential."
Amiridis was selected from four finalists who had been narrowed down from 55 candidates in the university's eight-month search.
Thomas Hardy, UIC's executive director of media relations, said the chancellor search process took a bit longer than it normally would have, due to the fact that the university system was searching for a new president, as well.
"We wanted to make sure [president search] was completed and make sure that the new president would have a key role in the selection for the chancellor of the Chicago campus," Hardy said.
If approved in January, Amiridis would begin his term March 16.
"Dr. Amiridis is an accomplished administrator on a flagship research campus, with a proven record of building academic and research excellence," UIC President Robert Easter said in the release. "He also shares our vision that universities play a critical role in not only transforming the lives of students, but driving progress for our state and nation."
Easter will retire at the end of June 2015, and Timothy Killeen will take on the role, as the university's 20th president.
Amiridis would effectively head up Chicago's largest university campus as chancellor. The university has over 28,000 and is home to the country's largest medical school.
"He has worked tirelessly to enhance the academic reputation of university," Pastides said. "He will be greatly missed, yet it would not have been right to try to hard to hold him back. He is ready for this next challenge."