About the authors

Michael M. Crow

Arizona State University President and Professor of Science and Technology Policy

Michael M. Crow is an academic leader and educator, designer of knowledge enterprises, and science and technology scholar. He has been the sixteenth president of Arizona State University since July 2002 and is guiding its transformation into one of the nation’s leading public metropolitan research universities, an institution that combines the highest levels of academic excellence, inclusiveness to a broad demographic, and maximum societal impact—a model he designed known as the “New American University.” Under his leadership ASU has established major interdisciplinary research initiatives and witnessed an unprecedented expansion of academic infrastructure, nearly fourfold increase in research expenditures, and attainment of record levels of diversity in the student body.

He was previously professor of science and technology policy and executive vice provost of Columbia University, where he served as chief strategist of Columbia’s research enterprise and technology transfer operations. He has been an advisor to the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, and Energy, defense and intelligence agencies, and a number of nation-states on matters of science and technology policy and knowledge enterprise design. An elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and National Academy of Public Administration, he is the coauthor of Designing the New American University, forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press, and author or coauthor of books and articles analyzing knowledge enterprises, science and technology policy, and the design of higher education institutions and systems.

William B. Dabars

Senior Research Fellow for University Design and Director of Research for the New American University

William B. Dabars is Senior Research Fellow for University Design and Director of Research for the New American University in the Office of the President, Arizona State University. He is also an associate research professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies, and an affiliate scholar in the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes (CSPO). He is the coauthor, with Michael M. Crow, of Designing the New American University (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015). He has served in various research capacities for the University of Southern California, University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Getty Research Institute, one of the operating programs of the J. Paul Getty Trust, and as a consultant for the Getty Conservation Institute and University of Colorado, Boulder. He received a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles.