Robert C. Dynes

Robert C. Dynes
18th President of the University of California
In office 2003–2007
Preceded by	Richard C. Atkinson
Succeeded by	Mark Yudof
6th Chancellor of the University of California San Diego
In office 1996–2003
Preceded by	Richard C. Atkinson
Succeeded by	Marye Anne Fox
Personal details
Born	(1942-11-08)8 November 1942 London, Ontario, Canada
Died	30 June 2025(2025-06-30) (aged 82)
Spouse(s)	Christel Dynes ​ ​ (m. 1968; div. 1998)​ Frances Hellman ​ ​ (m. 1998; div. 2006)​ Ann Parode ​ (m. 2007)​
Alma mater	University of Western Ontario McMaster University
Profession	Academic administrator, physicist, professor, researcher
Institutions	Bell Laboratories University of California San Diego University of California University of California, Berkeley

Robert Carr Dynes (8 November 1942 – 30 June 2025) was a Canadian-American physicist, researcher, academic administrator and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He was also president of the University of California system, and chancellor of the University of California San Diego.

Biography

Early years

Dynes was born in Ontario, Canada, where he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Western Ontario in 1964. He then earned his master's (1965) and doctorate (1968) degrees in physics from McMaster University. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1984.

Career

Dynes worked at Bell Laboratories from 1964 to 1990 studying semiconductors and superconductors. He then became professor of physics at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), in 1991. In 1996, he became Chancellor of the UCSD campus and was chosen in 2003 to be the 18th President of the University of California system.

Dynes' scientific honors included the 1990 Fritz London Memorial Prize in Low Temperature Physics and his 2001 election to the Council of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dynes was also a fellow of the American Physical Society (1981), the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dynes stayed active in research and headed a modest-sized low-temperature physics laboratory at Berkeley.

After five tumultuous years as President of UC, filled with compensation scandals, the suicide of the UCSC Chancellor Denice Denton and other challenges, on 13 August 2007, Dynes announced he would resign his position as the President of the University of California to return to his teaching position and spend time with his new wife, Ann Parode. He resigned on 16 August 2007, and was replaced by Mark Yudof, a former chancellor of the University of Texas.

In November 2008, Dynes' close aide and his UC Associate President Linda Morris Williams was awarded a controversial payout and re-hired as an Associate Chancellor at University of California, Berkeley by Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. This event led President Mark Yudof to make changes to the buyout program.

Personal life and death

Dynes became a naturalized United States citizen in 1984. He married Cristel Dynes in 1968, but they divorced in January 1998. He married a physics professor, Frances Hellman, in May 1998, but they also divorced in 2006. He married a former UCSD legal counsel and UC Associate of the President, Ann Parode Dynes, in March 2007.

Dynes died on 30 June 2025, at the age of 82.

References

• Cerolyn Jones (14 August 2007). "Dynes Quitting as Head of UC - Presided Over Compensation Scandal". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 30 November 2008.
• Cerolyn Jones (14 August 2007). "Dynes' tenure". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 30 November 2008.

External links

• Oral history interview transcript with Robert Dynes on 30 March 2020, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
• Biography of Robert C. Dynes
• Homepage of Robert C. Dynes at UC San Diego