Short Bio

Gary S. May is the seventh chancellor of UC Davis, one of the nation’s most academically and socially diverse universities. He is leading the university to new heights in academic excellence, enterprise research, public service and upward mobility for students of all backgrounds.

Chancellor May came to UC Davis in 2017 after serving as dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering, the nation’s largest and most diverse school of its kind. He earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley and has won numerous awards for his research in computer-aided manufacturing of integrated circuits. 

Throughout his career, he’s championed diversity, equity and inclusion in both higher education and the workplace. He developed nationally recognized programs that attract, mentor and retain underrepresented groups in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math. In 2015, President Obama honored him with the Presidential Award for Excellence in STEM Mentoring. In 2021, May was awarded a Lifetime Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an honorary doctorate from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

May was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2018 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020. 

He serves as the chair of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council.

A prominent voice in higher education, May is a Commissioner of the Council on Competitiveness. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of American Universities, and as a member of the of the Task Force on Higher Education and Opportunity, the Fulbright Scholar Advisory Board (CIES), the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities governing board, and the National Society of Black Engineers National Advisory Board (emeritus). He serves on the executive committee of the Board of Directors for the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. He was selected as a Fellow member of the American Society for Engineering Education in 2021. 

May previously served on the executive committee of the Board of Directors for the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, which he chaired from 2022-23, as Chair of the Universities Research Association’s Council of Presidents (2022), as a member of the National Academy of Engineering's Racial Justice and Equity Committee and as a board member of the American Council on Education.