<p>Dr. Nikias will be the 11th president of the university. He holds the Robert Packard President's Chair and the Malcolm Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities.</p>
<p>Before serving as USC Provost Dr. Nikias was Dean of the USC School of Engineering. He oversaw the expansion of the school's biomedical engineering enterprise and developed the distance learning program into one of the largest in the country. He also promoted partnerships with leading industries. His leadership of fundraising for the engineering school brought in over $250 million.</p>
<p>During his career at SC he established the Edward Roybal Institute, the Stevens Institute for Innovation, the U. S. China Institute and the Levan Institute for the Humanities and Ethics. He launched Visions & Voices, the campus arts and humanities initiative.</p>
<p>As a scholar Nikias has been recognized for pioneering research on digital signal processing, digital media systems and biomedicine. He was founding director of two national research centers at USC. The DoD has adopted a number of his patents in sonar, radar and communications systems. He has authored more than 275 journal articles and conference papers, three texts and eight patents.</p>
<p>Dr. Nikias is a member of the American Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the IEEE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received the Simon Ramo Medal, the Clifford Furniss Memorial Award and the American Hellenic Council's Aristeio Award among others.</p>