Robert Joseph Birgeneau, a Canadian physicist, became the 9th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley on September 22, 2004. He was the 14th President of the University of Toronto from 2000 to 2004. He left the University before the end of his seven-year term, causing a flurry of controversy with his abrupt departure.
The first from his family to finish high school, Birgeneau graduated in 1963 with a BSc in mathematics from the University of Toronto, St. Michael's College, where he also met his wife Mary Catherine; they have four children. Birgeneau received his PhD in physics from Yale University in 1966.
He spent a year each on the faculties of Yale and Oxford University. From 1968 to 1975, he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He then joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a professor of physics. During his 25 years at MIT, he served as chair of the physics department and then as dean of science.
Birgeneau is world-renowned for his email-checking ability. As well, he plays a killer game of squash.
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