University of Southern California

Zachary Wood, author of Uncensored, a brutally honest and gripping memoir of a young African American man’s struggle to rise above poverty and racism, shared his unique perspectives on free speech, race and education with USC Professor and President Emeritus C. L. Max Nikias at the Rancho Mirage Writers Festival.

Former California Governor Gray Davis moderated a wide-ranging and lively panel, “What Is the Future of Higher Education?” at the Rancho Mirage Writers Festival featuring USC President Emeritus and Professor C. L. Max Nikias and USC University Professor Geoffrey Cowan.

Twenty-seven years ago at a meeting at UC Berkeley, then USC Professor and Associate Dean of Research in the Engineering School C. L. Max Nikias met a transportation systems engineer, Randolph Hall. That meeting would lead to a long and fruitful collaboration to the great benefit of the University of Southern California.

President Emeritus and Professor C. L. Max Nikias recently traveled to the United Kingdom to establish academic collaborations in research, teaching and outreach programs for his Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities and the USC Institute for Technology Enabled Higher Education. The institute was established as an organized research unit in the Office of the Provost and Nikias is its executive director.

C. L. Max Nikias has moved into the role of President Emeritus and Life Trustee of the university. This decision follows the announcement, earlier this summer, that the Board of Trustees and Dr. Nikias had agreed to an orderly transition and that a Special Committee of the Board would commence a search for a new president. He will continue to serve as a tenured professor and holder of the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities, and will assist with the transition of the incoming president. Click through to read the full press release.