Welcome Robert J. Jones

On Feb. 3, 2025, the University of Washington Board of Regents announced that Robert J. Jones has been selected as the 34th President of the UW. Jones is currently the chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and will begin his UW presidency Aug. 1.

In announcing the appointment, Board of Regents Chair Blaine Tamaki called Jones “an accomplished, visionary leader who has risen through the faculty at outstanding state universities.” He lauded Jones’ commitment to making a college education accessible and affordable and to advancing research, innovation and economic opportunity.

“His inspiring and barrier-breaking personal journey, highly regarded scholarship and decades of transformative leadership convinced us that Chancellor Jones is the ideal person to build upon President Ana Mari Cauce’s legacy.”

The UW presidency will be Jones’ third time leading a public research university, as in addition to his current role he previously served as President of the University at Albany. He is a distinguished scholar, with his research focusing on crop physiology, and a leader in national academic organizations and the Big Ten Conference.

I am honored to be joining the University of Washington and excited to lead this extraordinary public university in its mission serving students, families and communities across Washington and beyond. The UW is globally renowned as a home of outstanding teaching, research, innovation and patient care. I look forward to working with the UW’s talented and dedicated faculty and staff to support and accelerate their work, and to partnering with the UW’s supporters to advance students’ success, economic opportunity and discovery for the public good.

Jones will succeed President Ana Mari Cauce, who announced last year that she is stepping down from the role she will have held for 10 years at the end of the 2024-25 academic year in June. He will become the first African American to serve in the role.

“Having known and worked with Robert within AAU, APLU and the Big Ten Conference, I know he will bring a deep and demonstrated commitment to scholarship, innovation, research and especially, access to excellence for students regardless of their means or background.”

Since becoming University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Chancellor in 2016, his signal achievements include providing a transformative learning experience to students, with a focus on affordability for students of modest means; launching innovative partnerships to catalyze scholarship, discovery and innovation; centering the University’s community and public impact; fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment; and successfully pursuing resources and strategic investments.

From 2013-2016, Jones was President of the University at Albany. He initiated the university’s largest academic expansion in half a century, adding academic units and degree-granting programs, expanding opportunities for faculty research and student experiential learning, deepening the university’s community engagement, and raising philanthropic support for this vision.

Jones is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Association of American Universities Board of Directors, the Association of Public Land Grant Universities Council of Presidents, and the Executive Committee of the Big Ten Conference Council of Presidents and Chancellors. He began his academic career as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota in 1978 where he spent more than three decades as an internationally respected authority on plant physiology and a nationally recognized university administrator.

For information about Jones, read the news release announcing his appointment, the message from Regents Chair Tamaki and Jones’ biography.