At UC San Diego, Chancellor Rose Swiftly Through Ranks

As chancellor at UC San Diego, physicist Robert C. Dynes laid down a challenge to students each year.

He invited them to a 5K race on campus and pledged to donate $25 to an undergraduate scholarship fund for each student who beat him.

Despite being an accomplished runner at age 60, Dynes has had to pay out some significant sums. But there aren't many who could rival the pace of his career in the UC system.

Dynes joined UC San Diego as a physics professor in 1991. He took over as chancellor five years later. And on Wednesday, he was named the 18th president of the University of California.

At UC San Diego, many faculty members see Dynes as approachable and as deft in advancing his career and the university.

"He's like a duck in the water," said Joel Dimsdale, a psychiatrist at UC San Diego and head of the campus' academic senate. "He looks calm and unruffled on the surface, but he's pedaling very fast underneath."

UC Berkeley physicist Marvin L. Cohen said Dynes, a friend he has known for more than 20 years, has an exceptionally fast and well-tuned mind.

"He just gets right to the core of things quickly," said Cohen, who, like Dynes, is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

"I've rarely seen him confused or sidetracked by a bunch of details. He's someone who cuts through that, both when he's doing research and in administration."

When Cohen recruits physicists to UC Berkeley, he enjoys comparing notes on the candidates with Dynes. "He'll give me the straight scoop," Cohen said.

"He'll say, 'This guy, or this woman, is first-rate.' Or, 'They're OK, but sometimes they can't see the forest for the trees.' He's very good at picking up things about people."

A native of London, Ontario, and the first in his family to graduate from college, Dynes was educated in Canada and later became a U.S. citizen. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics at the University of Western Ontario and later his master's degree and PhD in physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He has described himself as a "lower middle-class kid who almost chose an ice hockey career over college."

After earning his doctorate, however, Dynes went into private industry, starting at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1968 in New Jersey as a postdoctoral fellow. He rose to become director of chemical physics research in 1983, a post he held until joining the faculty at UC San Diego in 1991 as a physics professor.