UF Board of Trustees selects Dr. Santa J. Ono as the 14th president of the University of Florida

Press release from the University of Florida

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The University of Florida Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to select Dr. Santa J. Ono as the University of Florida’s next president. 

Ono will become UF’s 14th president, pending ratification by the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the State University System of Florida. 

“I am thankful for, and humbled by, the unanimous support of the Board of Trustees. The energy here at the University of Florida is palpable, and I am eager to join the wonderful students, faculty, and staff of the Gator Nation,” Ono said. “I’m excited by the prospect of being part of such an exceptional institution that is so clear-eyed in its purpose. Let’s go do great things together.” 

Ono is the immediate past president of the University of Michigan and immediate past chair of the University of Michigan Health Board and brings a distinguished record of leadership in academia and public health across the United States and Canada.  He is a world-renowned vision researcher and is recognized for pioneering work on the immune system and eye disease. 

He has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Inventors, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has been awarded multiple honorary doctorates and was inducted into the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars.  

“Santa Ono is precisely the right person to be president of the University of Florida at this moment in its history,” said UF Board of Trustees Chair Mori Hosseini. “He is a remarkably accomplished scholar and a solidly proven academic leader, and his values align perfectly with ours here in the great state of Florida.  Dr. Ono will ensure that merit and scholarship, not ideology, are the gold standards for success, and he will see to it that the University of Florida continues its ascent toward becoming America’s premier public university, bar none.” 

Rahul Patel, Board of Trustees vice chair and chair of UF’s Presidential Search Committee, said Ono was selected from among hundreds of potential candidates and quickly rose to the top as the best choice. 

“The search committee instantly recognized that Dr. Ono was the person who embodied all the qualities we were looking for – qualities that would take the University of Florida into the very highest ranks of the very best universities. He stood head and shoulders above an outstanding candidate pool. He was, without question, the perfect choice,” Patel said. 

Ono is the chair of the Council of Presidents of the Association of Public & Land Grant Universities (APLU) and serves on the boards of the American Council on Education (ACE), the Council on Competitiveness, and Internet2.  

Ono joined the University of Michigan from the University of British Columbia, where he served as president and vice chancellor. He was chair of the U15 Group of Canadian Universities and the Research Universities of British Columbia (RUCBC) and served as Advisor to the Premier on Innovation and Technology. Prior to UBC, he was president and provost of the University of Cincinnati and served on the Board of the Ohio Third Frontier, the state’s technology-based economic development program.  

He served as senior vice provost and deputy to the provost at Emory University. He taught at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and University College London. He earned his B.A. in biological sciences from the University of Chicago in 1984 and a Ph.D. (with honors) in experimental medicine from McGill University in 1991. He was inducted into Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society.  

Ono is expected to succeed current Interim President Kent Fuchs. Ono was announced May 4 as the sole finalist selected by UF’s 15-member Presidential Search Committee. As required by Florida law, the Presidential Search Committee was responsible for designing the search criteria, identifying and vetting a broad pool of qualified candidates, and recommending finalists to the Board of Trustees.