Class of 2007, members of the Board of Trustees, members of the faculty, staff, students and friends of the College: It gives me great pleasure to introduce our new President, David Oxtoby to you.

David was born in Bryn Mawr, where his father was a Math Professor at Bryn Mawr College. He spent the first seventeen years of his life on that campus before proceeding on to Harvard University where he graduated summa cum laude in 1972, with majors in Chemistry and Physics. He then headed west to Berkeley, where he received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in three years. He did a postdoctoral stint at the University of Chicago where he so impressed his mentor, Stuart Rice and the faculty, that he was invited to join the faculty as an Assistant Professor. Before he joined the faculty at U. Chicago, he decided to hone his research skills in a research laboratory in Villetaneuse, France. While doing his research in France, he met his future wife Clare, who was also visiting the country. He then joined the faculty at Chicago in 1977 and rapidly rose through the ranks culminating in his promotion to Full Professor nine years later. In 1996, he was named the William Rainey Harper Professor at the University of Chicago. He has also held various visiting professorships in Paris, Bristol and Sydney.

On the administrative side, he was an Associate Dean of the College and of the Physical Sciences from 1984 – 1987. In 1992, he became the Director of the famous James Frank Institute, U. of Chicago and in 1995, he was appointed as the Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences. Five years later, he was re-appointed to a second term.

He has been the recipient of many honors and fellowships – I will not list all of them, but I will mention a few – they include the National Merit Scholarship, the National Science Foundation Pre-doctoral fellowship, the Danforth, Sloan, Dreyfus and Guggenheim Fellowships. In 1986, he was awarded the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. I believe this is the equivalent of Pomona College's Wig Award. He has served on the editorial boards of many prestigious journals in Chemistry.

In the last thirty years he has compiled a stellar research record in Chemistry. He has more than 165 publications including 2 textbooks. He is co-author of a widely used chemistry textbook – Principles of Modern Chemistry, which I believe many of you will be cracking open tomorrow! What is most unusual and significant about his research record is that he published two articles as a sole author during his graduate school days. That does not happen often. David's research focuses on the behavior of liquids, light scattering, chemical reaction dynamics and phase transitions. He is particularly interested in the crystallization of liquids(nucleation) on the molecular scale. He has a strong interest in interdisciplinary courses in the natural sciences and in courses that stress quantitative reasoning, relevancy to everyday life and student centered active learning. To this end, he was a co-principal investigator in the NSF-sponsored "ChemLinks Coalition", which emphasizes the revitalization of chemical education on a national scale.

Besides his administrative, teaching and research duties, he has made time to cultivate his other interests: he has been a member of the Bryn Mawr Board of Trustees since 1985, a member of the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory, Advisory Board for Project Kaleidoscope and the Toyota Technological Institute Board of Trustees.

In case I have given you the impression that he always has his head buried in books, papers or memos, let me dissuade you of that notion. He is a great fan of classical music and jazz. He was a member of the "37 players" – a playreading group. He is an avid cyclist and has participated in some long, long races like the Illinois MS150. He is fluent in French and has a reading knowledge of German and Italian. He is studying Spanish and is most probably fluent in it by now! He is truly a Renaissance man! He and Clare have 3 children – Mary Christina, John and Laura.

Would you please join me in extending a warm welcome to the Ninth President of Pomona College – David W. Oxtoby.