Robert A. Brown, a distinguished chemical engineer and educator, became president of Boston University in September 2005. As president, Brown emphasizes the continued improvement of academic quality in all domains through the establishment of clear priorities, benchmarking and periodic review.

He works to underscore the central importance and interrelationship of teaching and research, with particular focus on stimulating interdisciplinary study and spanning all the university’s disciplines and programs. A key interdisciplinary effort is the Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Honors College that gives the university’s best students opportunities to explore broadly using the full range of programs offered at BU.

Early in his presidency, Brown initiated an 18-month planning process that culminated in the 10-year strategic plan, Choosing to be Great, that articulates Boston University’s core values embedded in a set of institutional commitments. This plan defines goals for establishing Boston University as one of the great research universities in the world. In 2012, the university was invited to join the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization of the 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada.

A Texas native, he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota, where he worked under the guidance of Professor L. E. Scriven. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, among other professional societies.

Prior to his appointment at Boston University, Brown was provost and Warren K. Lewis Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the MIT faculty in 1979, beginning a distinguished career in education and research. He has published more than 250 papers in areas related to mathematical modeling of transport phenomena in materials and served as executive editor of the Journal of Chemical Engineering Science from 1991 to 2004. In 2008, he was named one of the top 100 Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.