Randenka Maric Appointed President of the University of Connecticut

Radenka Maric has been appointed the seventeenth president of the University of Connecticut. She has served as interim president since February 1. Dr. Maric is the second woman to serve as president of the university.

“Being named president of the University of Connecticut is the honor of a lifetime. I am proud and humbled to have your confidence and your trust,” Dr. Maric said. “I will work every day to continue to earn it, as well as that of our students, faculty, staff, alumni, patients, and many supporters.”

Earlier, Dr. Maric served as vice president for research from 2017 to 2022 where and oversaw the university’s $375 million research enterprise at the main campus in Storrs, the health campus in Farmington, the School of Law in Hartford, and four regional campuses around the state. Previously, she served as the inaugural executive director of the university’s $132 million Innovation Partnership Building, which houses state-of-art specialized equipment and research centers of excellence and serves as a nexus for industry-academic partnerships.

Dr. Maric is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund Professor of Sustainable Energy in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the department of materials science and engineering. Her research interests include fundamental understanding of the effect of structure, defects, and microstructure on transport and electrical properties of surfaces and interfaces. She is interested in developing novel materials for fuel cells, batteries, and biosensors.

Dr. Maric earned a bachelor’s degree from Belgrade University in Serbia. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in materials science from Kyoto University in Japan.