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Executive Vice Chancellor EVC
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Elizabeth H. Simmons

Executive Vice Chancellor

Dr. Elizabeth H. Simmons (she/her/hers) is the Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of California San Diego. As UC San Diego’s chief academic officer, she is responsible for policies and decisions relating to all academic programs and curriculum, instructional support programs, and faculty appointments and performance. She is the institution’s second-ranking executive officer and acts on behalf of the Chancellor in overseeing the University in his absence.

Simmons aspires for UC San Diego to work collectively and coherently in becoming an inclusive student-centered, research-focused, service-oriented university.  She envisions that the university will scale up the size, connectivity, and impact of research collaborations; be as proudly innovative in education as in scholarship; and empower every Triton to succeed – undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and faculty. 

As Executive Vice Chancellor, Simmons works with colleagues throughout Academic Affairs and partners across UC San Diego (and the broader community) to develop overarching strategic goals -- and purposeful habits of collaboration required to make those aspirations attainable and sustainable.

 
Overarching Strategic Goals Habits of Purposeful Collaboration
Erasing demographics in undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree attainment through a personalized campus experience addressing the needs of the whole student Institutionalizing equitable practices throughout UC San Diego’s work
Developing a culture of educational innovation and holistic teaching review that unleashes faculty creativity and promotes student success Extending partnerships throughout campus and the wider community
Promoting large-scale, interdisciplinary, and community-engaged research initiatives that initiative scholarship, innovation, and entrepreneurship Cultivating diverse revenue streams to support new academic initiatives
Uplifting the arts and humanities as an essential component of our campus identity Pursuing continuous improvement in infrastructure, policies, and practice – including lessons from the COVID era
Emphasizing the interplay between societal and scientific advances Employing collective impact to manifest shared goals and leverage common datasets, tools, and assessments across UC San Diego’s many unique programs

Executive Vice Chancellor Simmons regularly publishes essays in Inside Higher Ed addressing issues that bridge the divide between administrators and faculty. Select essays include:

. Select essays include

Other recent published works in which the EVC was an author include:

 UC San Diego reflections:

HS EDI Summit- July 2019

Health Education- April 2019

 Silent Tree- March 2019

Process Palooza- Dec 2018

Celebrating Jeff Elman- Oct 2018

Meet the Beach- Sept 2018

Gandhi Memorial Lecture- July 2018

Preuss Commencement- June 2018

Commencement Joy - June 2018

The Transfer Triton Day - May 2018

The Inclusive Triton Spirit - November 2017

Art in the Campus Landscape - October 2017

 

EVC Simmons is also a Distinguished Professor in the UC San Diego Department of Physics. As a theoretical high-energy physicist, Simmons' research focuses on the origins of the masses of the elementary subatomic particles, especially the top quark. She is currently studying how physics beyond the Standard Model, including Dark Matter and massive gravitons, might manifest in experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and other facilities. She enjoys teaching physics courses at all levels, from introductory to graduate, and a central tenet of her mission as an educator is to encourage students from groups under-represented in physics to consider studies and careers in the physical sciences. 

After completing an A.B. magna cum laude in physics at Harvard University and being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Simmons earned an M.Phil. in physics at Cambridge University as a Churchill Scholar. She returned to Harvard for her Ph.D. and postdoctoral fellowship, and then spent a decade as a professor at Boston University before joining the Michigan State University faculty in 2003 and then moving to UC San Diego in 2017.

Simmons is a Fellow of the AAAS; a Fellow, Five Sigma Physicist, and Outstanding Referee, of the American Physical Society (APS); an Honorary General Member of the Aspen Center for Physics; and a past member of the Board of Directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She currently serves as a Trustee of the Fleet Science Center in San Diego. She regularly publishes essays in Inside Higher Ed, addressing issues that bridge the divide between administrators and faculty.

In 2008 and 2011, she was a US Delegate to the International Conference on Women in Physics and since 2013 she has co-organized bi-annual conferences on professional growth for women physicists in the developing world at the International Center for Theoretical Physics (Italy). Simmons served for six years on the Organizing Board of the advocacy group lgbt+physicists, was a co-author of the LGBT Climate Report commissioned by the APS, and then co-founded the APS Forum on Diversity and Inclusion.  

Read her Curriculum Vitae or visit her Faculty Profile to learn more about EVC Simmons' work. 

Make an Appointment

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Meeting Request Form

 

Invite to an Event

If you would like EVC Simmons to participate in an event, please complete our event participation request form, including details about any remarks you would like her to provide at your event. 

Event Participation Request Form

 

Reverse Office Hours

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Reverse Office Hours Request Form