Meet President Suresh Garimella, the U of A's newest Wildcat

Wednesday marked the start of a new era for the University of Arizona, when Suresh Garimella spent his first full day on campus as the university's 23rd president.

Garimella, who officially assumed the presidency Tuesday, gave brief remarks in front of Old Main Wednesday morning, then quickly got back to work, with a schedule that included sitting down with a reporter from the Daily Wildcat; meeting with senior university leaders, including campus safety officials; and visiting the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab, where he was scheduled to meet with Carmala Garzione, dean of the College of Science, and Buell Jannuzi, head of the Department of Astronomy and director of Steward Observatory.

His eagerness to dive right into the job will come as no surprise to those familiar with Garimella's work ethic – something he says his parents instilled in him at an early age.

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Garimella was the youngest of three children growing up in India. His father worked as an engineer and his mother was a housewife. Neither had college degrees, and they stressed the importance of education to their children.

"Every day, we'd come home and do all our homework," Garimella said. "My parents wanted us to do well, and they sacrificed a lot for us. We are better off now because of their support and example."

When Garimella was young, education represented a ticket to a better life. That ticket would eventually take him to the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where he received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, then to The Ohio State University and the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned advanced degrees before embarking on a successful professional career in academia.  

Garimella comes to the U of A from the University of Vermont, where he served as president since 2019.

Tucson, on its face, has a lot to offer a New Englander considering a change of employment: mild winters, 350 days of sunshine and abundant access to guacamole (Garimella's favorite food). But, of course, there were much bigger factors at play in Garimella's decision to take the job in the desert.

The university's diverse campus, strong research enterprise and status as a land-grant university – a distinction shared by the University of Vermont – all appealed to Garimella.

Land-grant institutions, with their mission of teaching, research and public service, have an important role to play in their communities, Garimella says, and he has vowed to do his best to make the university a strong partner to the state and region.

On the university's land-grant mission, Garimella notes the importance of service.

"Our focus as a land-grant university is one of service to the state – its people and communities," he said. "We have a responsibility to make opportunity available and create the environment where many more people can thrive."

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Part of that land-grant mission is making a university education as accessible and affordable as possible, something Garimella worked to do at UVM when he froze tuition rates for all university students throughout his presidency. He also continued to work with students hands-on, teaching an annual undergraduate seminar on civil discourse. This direct engagement with students has been a priority his entire career, over which he has supervised many Ph.D. students and mentored over 90 graduate students and 50 postdoctoral scholars.

Garimella, who has been appointed a University Distinguished Professor at the U of A, has vowed to continue making students his No. 1 priority, calling them the "heartbeat" of the university.

"We're here for our students and their success," he said. "Everyone at the university has a part to play in creating the environment where students can thrive, and staying in touch with them is so important to be able to do that effectively. I'm really looking forward to getting to know our students."

This year, the university's heartbeat got a little bit louder when the U of A welcomed its most diverse class in history, with more than 9,300 well-prepared incoming first-year students joining the Wildcat family.

Garimella's advice to those students: “Remember that your goals are why you're here, and work hard, but also leave time for curiosity about the world, for reading, and for connection with those around you."

His own academic journey was already taking shape by the time Garimella was 12 years old. He knew then that he wanted to one day become a researcher. He was initially interested in medicine and was accepted to medical school, but he chose to pursue mechanical engineering instead. He is now a highly cited scholar in his field, having co-authored more than 625 research publications. Specifically, his work focuses on energy efficiency in electronics, renewable and sustainable energy systems, and thermal and energy transport at microscales and nanoscales.

President Garimella's extensive research background makes him well-suited to lead the U of A as a Research 1 institution with $955 million in annual research expenditures.

Under his leadership at UVM, the university's research enterprise more than doubled. Prior to that, Garimella served as executive vice president of research and partnerships and a distinguished professor at Purdue University in Indiana, also a land-grant institution.

Other accomplishments on his resume: He has been elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He is a member of the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation. He also has served as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the U.S. Department of State, lending his scientific expertise on national and international policy issues.

The Arizona Board of Regents unanimously approved Garimella's appointment as 23rd U of A president, following a national search led by an 18-member search committee that included regents, U of A faculty and staff, a student, and community and business leaders. During the search, ABOR and the search committee gathered feedback from more than 4,200 students, employees and community members through listening sessions, individual meetings, public town halls and a campuswide survey.

Garimella now calls Tucson home with his wife, Lakshmi. The couple has two children, daughter Shruthi, a doctoral student at the University of California, Davis, and son Sanjay, also a doctoral student, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Fun facts about President Garimella: 

• He has visited every continent.
• He considers himself a movie buff, and his favorites include "Doctor Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia."
• He speaks Hindi and Telugu, the language of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. He also learned
• Sanskrit and some French during his time in Algeria, where his father was posted for a time.
• He learned to roller blade in college.
• His favorite time of year is when students come back to campus.

Originally posted on news.arizona.edu.