University of Iowa College of Engineering alumnus Alexander Cartwright (BSE 1989 electrical engineering, PhD 1995 electrical and computer engineering) has been named as the next chancellor at the University of Missouri-Columbia.  He will assume duties August 1.

Cartwright currently serves as provost and executive vice chancellor of the 64-campus State University of New York (SUNY) since September 2014. At SUNY, he built the university's agenda around overarching areas of student success and completion; diversity, equity and inclusion; and, through research growth in emerging areas, increasing SUNY’s impact on state and global challenges.

After graduating from high school, Cartwright moved with his mother from Nassau, Bahamas, to Tipton, IA, and spent a decade in the Hawkeye State where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering at the UI.

Cartwright is an internationally recognized scientist. He conducts research in optical materials and sensors. He holds four patents. He has produced more than 150 peer-reviewed journal publications. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the International Society for Optical Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also holds membership in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Society for Engineering Education and the Materials Research Society. A technology he developed was one of just five inventions in the world named on the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ 2013 list “Innovations that Could Change the Way You Manufacture.”