David Pershing is the President Emeritus of the University of Utah, where he is currently a Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering. As President, he had overall responsibility for 32,000 students, 20,000 employees and an annual budget of $4 billion. His major presidential initiatives include increased emphasis on excellence in undergraduate education, improving retention and graduation rates, supporting new interdisciplinary research efforts, diversity and sustainability, growth of online education and the medical school class, and continued expansion of research and academic facilities.

As the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs (Provost), Dr. Pershing had overall responsibility for approximately 1,000 faculty and 25,000 students in the 11 colleges of the main campus. He also had responsibility for distance and continuing education, libraries and museums, budget and planning, student affairs, performing arts, and diversity enhancement. During his tenure, he hired 21 new deans, 10 Vice Presidents and supported many other faculty recruitments; increased ethnic and gender diversity by new, targeted programs; reorganized the budget model of the university to relate college budgets to student enrollments and quality; helped create a statewide economic development initiative (USTAR); helped attract more than 30 new physicians, scientists and engineers to help grow the high-technology base of the state; and worked collaboratively with Deans and Directors to raise over $600 million in new, public and private funds to support the construction of 14 new buildings. 

Dr. Pershing’s previous roles include Visiting Scientist at MIT’s Laboratory for Energy and the Environment and Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Utah. As a professor, he secured more than $80 million in external funding and authored more than 60 peer-reviewed journal publications.  He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona and BS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.