The Utah Board of Higher Education selected Elizabeth “Betsy” R. Cantwell as the seventeenth president of Utah State University. She will take office this summer.
According to the most recent federal data, Utah State University in Logan enrolls more than 24,000 undergraduate students and more than 3,000 graduate students. Women make up 56 percent of the undergraduate student body.
“I’m enormously grateful for the Utah Board of Higher Education for the faith they’ve put in me to become the next president of an amazing institution like Utah State University,” Dr. Cantwell said. I’m so excited about serving the students, faculty, and staff who have been welcoming, charming and made me certain that this is the place to be.”
Dr. Cantwell is currently senior vice president for research & innovation at the University of Arizona. Earlier, she was a professor of aerospace engineering at Arizona State University and vice president for research development and CEO of the Arizona State University Research Enterprise. Prior to ASU, Dr. Cantwell served at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as director for economic development and director for engineering mission strategy. From 2008-2010, she served as deputy associate director for global security at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Professor Cantwell holds a bachelor’s degree in human behavior from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stony Brook University in New York. She earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.