Two current and former university presidents — David Baltimore, who stepped down as president of the California Institute of Technology in 2006, and Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County — are among the 20 individuals and groups selected as “America’s Best Leaders” in the 2008 edition of a special report by that name in U.S. News & World Report.
The magazine praises Dr. Baltimore’s influence on science as stretching “far beyond the Nobel he won at age 37” and his early advocacy for federal research on AIDS. It also credits him for continuing to do research while leading a large research university. Dr. Baltimore, who served as Caltech’s president from 1997 to 2006, says he keeps his scientific work “in the background” while going about more essential tasks for institutional leaders — like raising money. (Dr. Baltimore was succeeded at Caltech by Jean-Lou Chameau.)
He concedes that fund-raising can be a challenge, but adds: “If you believe in the institution and you’ve got a little bit of chutzpah — I’ve got that — it’s not hard. If you’re someone who believes in science and technology as I do, it’s a lot easier to approach a wealthy person.”
The magazine credits Mr. Hrabowski’s “ebullient cheerleading for education” during his tenure at Maryland-Baltimore County as a driving force in that institution’s transformation from a no-name commuter campus into one of the nation’s biggest producers of technology graduates. As one of the most sought-after leaders in higher education, he frequently turns up as a candidate in presidential searches, but he has consistently chosen to stay at Maryland. “We in education should be less concerned with prestige and more concerned about what difference we can make,” he told The Chronicle in an interview last year. While taking pride in his university’s leadership as a public institution that is both inclusive and academically rigorous, he indicated that he saw his work there as incomplete. “We’re still young enough to be hungry,” he said. “We can be much better.” —Charles Huckabee
