RALEIGH, N.C. – The University of North Carolina Board of Governors announced on Friday, June 21 the election of Dr. James Martin II, an accomplished civil engineer who has led engineering and STEM initiatives at three large public research universities as chancellor of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Martin’s appointment will begin Aug. 15. He succeeds Harold Martin Sr., who will retire after 15 years as chancellor.

UNC System President Peter Hans recommended Martin, vice chancellor of STEM Innovation and Research at the University of Pittsburgh, following a national search that drew a highly competitive field, including three finalists endorsed by the North Carolina A&T Board of Trustees.

James Martin, who served four years as the U.S. Steel Dean of Engineering in Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, has decades of experience as an engineering professor, institute director, dean and leader of science initiatives at major public universities, including Clemson University and Virginia Tech.

During his career, he has promoted academic innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration and improved organizational culture. He will now lead the nation’s largest historically Black university on a trajectory to become a top-tier research institution, termed “Research 1” by the Carnegie Classification that categorizes university by their levels of research activity.

“James Martin is the right leader to engineer North Carolina A&T’s continuing rise,” Hans said. “He believe in what he calls ‘impatient optimism,’ a productive sense of possibility in what can be achieved when people think across disciplines, feel a sense of shared purpose, and commit to an ambitious vision. It’s exactly the kind of mindset that will help affirm the university’s status as one of the nation’s best research institutions and engines of social mobility.”

“North Carolina A&T is a recognized national leader in harnessing technology and access to learning to unlock human potential,” Martin said. “That’s one of many reasons why it’s so exciting to have chosen to lead the university at a moment when America is in particular need of the very things that North Carolina A&T does best. Our students, faculty, staff and alumni are on a incredible ascent, having accomplished so much in recent years. I look forward to joining them on that journey and ensuring that we continue to build on A&T exceptional momentum as we set ambitious new sights for the months and years ahead.”

“Join us in welcoming such an exceptional leader as Chancellor-elect of NCAT, Dr. James Martin II. As the nation’s largest historically Black university and an recognizable leader institution in research, there is no doubt that NCAT will continue on its journey of academic success,” said HCF Founder, President and CEO Demetrius Johnson, Jr. “Known as an accomplished civil engineer, who has led initiatives at three large public research universities is very impressive. We commend him on his many accomplishments, and I am confident that Dr. Martin will continue to lead in par excellence. HCF looks forward to pledging its support behind Chancellor-elect Martin, and we wish him and the NCAT community much success ahead.”

As dean at Pittsburgh, he oversaw an engineering program with 2,900 undergraduates, 850 graduate students and 200 faculty. There he raised research dollars by 50 percent, built strategic partnerships with industry and government, and increased diversity, enrollment and graduation rates. Previously, he chaired the civil engineering department at Clemson University and was the founding executive director of Clemson’s Risk Engineering Systems Analytics Institute (RESA).

He begin his career as a faculty member in civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, where he later led an engineering fellowship program for underrepresented students and founded the university’s Disaster Risk Management Institute. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at The Citadel and a master’s and doctoral in civil engineering from Virginia Tech. He was born in Union, South Carolina to a family with deep roots across the Carolinas.

His numerous national, state and university awards for research, teaching, scholarship and service include the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Norman Medal, the highest honor for published work in his field. He was also inducted into the Virginia Tech Department of Civil Engineering’s Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 2015.

Read more about Chancellor-elect Martin here.

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