Shirley Tilghman Stepping Down as President of Princeton University

Shirley M. Tilghman, president of Princeton University, has announced that she will step down from her post at the end of the academic year. Dr. Tilghman, who has been president of the university since 2001, will take a sabbatical and then return to Princeton to teach molecular biology.

In an email sent to members of the Princeton community, President Tilghman wrote, “For the last 11 years I have had the extraordinary privilege of serving as your president. These years have been joyous ones for me, and the highlight of my professional career.”

A native of Canada she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. After two years of secondary school teaching in Sierra Leone, West Africa, she obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Temple University in Philadelphia.

Tilghman came to Princeton in 1986 as the Howard A. Prior Professor of the Life Sciences. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the Royal Society of London and sits on the board of directors of Google Inc.