Speaker

Dr. C. L. Max Nikias is currently President Emeritus and Life Trustee of the University of Southern California (USC) and the holder of the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities. He has been at USC since 1991, and in addition to his work as a professor, has served as founding director of a media center, dean of engineering, provost, and president of the university. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a charter fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, an associate member of the Academy of Athens, a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a life fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Among numerous other honors, he has received the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, an Academic Leadership Award from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, UNICEF’s Spirit of Compassion Award, and six honorary doctorates. During his tenure as president, USC emerged as a global university with an undisputed academically-elite status, due to a number of strategic initiatives that included: recruiting world-class faculty and accelerating the expansion of the university’s academic medical enterprise; broadening USC’s international presence; dramatically improving the quality and diversity of the university’s student body; improving the university’s physical infrastructure, including the development of the USC Village; and successfully bringing to closure a $7 billion fundraising campaign in eight years. He lectures and moderates panels on three currently important topics: geopolitical tensions surrounding semiconductor chips, cybersecuring democracy and the promises of economic growth and ethical dilemmas of AI. He is also the current President of the Advisory Board of the Council for International Relations – Greece. He received a diploma in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo.