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Biography

Thomas F. George is chancellor and professor of chemistry and physics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. With nearly 16,000 students, UM-St. Louis is the third largest university in Missouri and the only metropolitan public research university in the St. Louis region. He became the university’s 7th chancellor in September 2003, after serving seven years as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. As chancellor, he oversees all academic and administrative operations of a campus with 2,500 faculty and staff members, 40 academic buildings and a $185 million annual operating budget.

He is active in the greater St. Louis community, such as serving on the boards of the Boy Scouts; YMCA; United Way; Civic Progress; Regional Chamber and Growth Association; Missouri Botanical Garden; Coalition for Plant and Life Sciences; Christian Hospital; Center for Emerging Technologies; Center of Research Technology and Entrepreneurial Expertise; St. Louis Science Center; Academy of Science of St. Louis; Higher Education Consortium; Innovate St. Louis; and Coalition for Information technology.  In 2008 he received the Distinguished Higher Education Award from the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Missouri State Celebration Commission.

In addition to his role as campus and community leader and fund-raiser, Chancellor George is an active researcher in chemistry and physics, specializing in chemical/materials/laser physics. His work has led to 685 articles/chapters, 5 authored books, 15 edited books and 205 conference abstracts.  He has delivered numerous invited lectures on his scientific research and on higher education at international conferences, held lectureships at universities, and presented seminars/colloquia at various institutions and laboratories on science and higher education (365 overall). He has served on a variety of editorial boards and currently is one of the two editors of the International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Group Theory and Nonlinear Optics. His research, including innovations in teaching, has been funded for 35 years from a number of federal agencies and private foundations (totaling nearly $5 million), where four of his most recent grants are from:  (1) the National Science Foundation to develop a course and textbook for teaching nanoscience/technology at the undergraduate level; (2) the U.S. Army for studies of self-assembling organic nanostructures; (3) the National Science Foundation for studies of ultrafast phase changes in semiconductors (with scientists in Hungary); and (4) the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for studies of rapid-detection sensors (with scientists in Romania). His scientific achievements have garnered prestigious awards such as the Marlow Medal and Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry in Great Britain and fellowships from the Guggenheim, Sloan and Dreyfus foundations. He has been named a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, American Physical Society, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers and American Association for the Advancement of Science.  In 2004 he was elected as a foreign member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, and he has held the title of visiting professor of physics at Korea University in Seoul.

An accomplished jazz pianist, Chancellor George has studied with faculty at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.  He has performed extensively in public, including  recent performances at the following:  St. Louis Jazz & Heritage Festival, Touhill Performing Arts Center, Sheldon Concert Hall and Finale in St. Louis; University of Arkansas; Nanjing University in China; and the city of Szeged in Hungary.  He has arranged and performed various programs/revues with cabaret singers and dancers.  In a duo with a trumpeter/flügelhornist in 1995, he recorded a CD entitled "Close Your Eyes: Women Jazz Composers" on the Hester Park label.  In 2007 he was the key organizer and performer on a CD entitled Chancellor Tom George and Friends Present “Love from St. Louis” produced at the University of Missouri–St. Louis as a fund-raiser for music scholarships.

Born in 1947 in Philadelphia, Chancellor George became an Eagle Scout in 1961 and received his high school diploma in 1963 from Friends' Central School, where he earned varsity letters in soccer and wrestling.  He received a bachelor of arts degree (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1967 with a double major in chemistry and mathematics from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. He earned a master of science degree in 1968 and doctor of philosophy degree in 1970 in theoretical chemistry from Yale University, followed by postdoctoral appointments at MIT and the University of California at Berkeley.

In 1972 Chancellor George joined the faculty at the University of Rochester in New York, where he was promoted to full professor of chemistry by age 29. In 1985 he moved to the State University of New York at Buffalo as dean of natural sciences and mathematics, a position he held for six years. He then served for five years as provost and academic vice president of Washington State University before moving as chancellor to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1996.