Indiana Alumni Magazine
Michael McRobbie. Photo courtesy of Indiana University.
Trustees pick McRobbie as university's 18th president
By Mike Wright
After an extensive nationwide search that found many “very talented people in the pool,” Indiana University turned to one of its own to lead the eight-campus institution.
During a meeting on the IUPUI campus on March 1, the IU trustees unanimously selected Michael A. McRobbie, 56, currently interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at IU Bloomington, as president, effective July 1. McRobbie will follow Adam W. Herbert, who came to IU in August 2003.
Herbert, who succeeded Myles Brand, will leave office one month shy of serving four years as IU president. Herbert announced a year ago that he would not continue beyond his five-year contract and suggested that the trustees begin the search process immediately.
In choosing McRobbie, IU has for the first time in more than three decades hired a president from within its own ranks. John W. Ryan, MA/PhD’59, LLD’88, was appointed IU president in January 1971. At the time, he was vice president and chancellor for regional campuses.
“Having embarked upon a nationwide search to recruit a new leader of outstanding qualifications, we found ourselves in the enviable position of being able to count among our own an individual of international renown for his accomplishments and for his vision,” said Sue Hays Talbot, BS’66, MS’71, EdD’92, an IU trustee and head of the presidential search committee.
“We believe he will move IU into the forefront of the world’s great research universities. Michael McRobbie is the right person to lead Indiana University at this time.”
A native of Australia, but “a Hoosier by choice,” McRobbie came to IU in 1997 from the Institute of Advanced Study at the Australian National University, where he was a professor of information-technology and chief executive officer of the Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Computational Systems. Brand, president of IU at the time, hired McRobbie to head the university’s information technology efforts. In 2003, McRobbie was given the additional title of vice president for research. After some recent restructuring of IU’s leadership positions, he became interim provost in January 2006.
When McRobbie arrived at IU, he prepared a strategic plan for information technology and began building the infrastructure to move the university into a national leadership role in the field.
As vice president for research, McRobbie focused attention on increasing external funding for IU programs. The university has secured grants to fund several life-sciences initiatives, including the Indiana Metabolomics and Cytomics Initiative and the Indiana Genomics Initiative. He also helped bring one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to IU.
McRobbie said during the announcement of his appointment that the university is now at a vital crossroads in its history, facing several challenges but also looking at new opportunities.
“Our enduring missions will not change,” he said. “We will continue to provide an excellent education and conduct first-rate research. And we have a third mission, engagement through economic development and community service, but it relies on our successful execution of the first two.”
Among the challenges McRobbie noted were fierce global competition for the best students and faculty, reductions in federal funding, generational change among IU’s intellectual leaders, and an overall climate of constrained resources. He noted that IU’s multi-campus structure presents both challenges and advantages, adding that he intends to be a president for the whole university.
“Such a vast institution demands special collaboration and cooperation among our various campuses,” he said.
Questioned during a press conference about the role of the IUPUI campus, McRobbie pointed to the strong partnership between the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses in the area of information technology. He added that new collaborations are under way in the life sciences and called international studies the “new frontier” that the two campuses should address.
“My vision for Indiana University requires a balanced partnership between our two major research campuses,” McRobbie said.
The president-designate also touted IU’s historical strength in the arts and humanities.
“This is also a university where discovery, engagement, and curiosity drive students and faculty alike toward the book, the concert stage, the unpainted canvas,” McRobbie said. “This broad canvas draws our campuses together. Indiana University has created a lasting legacy in the arts that is a gift to our many communities.
“In fact, one great strength of the university is the healthy balance of disciplines that exposes students to the full range of human knowledge. This is one of the ways we prepare students to thrive in an increasingly global marketplace. That very marketplace is driving our 21st-century vision for Indiana University. Our message must travel from Bloomington to Bangalore, from South Bend to Shanghai. Our vision must be both local and global.”
In addition to his administrative responsibilities at IU, McRobbie holds professorships in computer science, informatics, and philosophy and adjunct positions in cognitive science and information science. He is also a professor of computer technology in the Purdue School of Engineering at IUPUI.
As a widower, McRobbie recently remarried. He and his wife, Laurie Burns, each have three children.
For more information, go to www.indiana.edu/~newpres. 
Mike Wright, BA'78, is editor of the Indiana Alumni Magazine.