Honored Speaker: Daniel Diermeier

Daniel Diermeier

An internationally renowned political scientist and management scholar, Daniel Diermeier is the ninth chancellor of Vanderbilt University. Since stepping into the role in 2020, the university has risen in stature, topped the $1 billion mark in research funding, invested over $100M in bringing leading faculty to Vanderbilt and successfully launched a $3.2B capital campaign. Under Diermeier’s leadership, Vanderbilt has been recognized as a leader on free speech, institutional neutrality and civil discourse.

In addition to his role as chancellor, Diermeier is University Distinguished Professor in the Owen Graduate School of Management and Distinguished University Professor of Political Science in the College of Arts & Science. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has published six books and more than 100 research articles in academic journals—mostly in the fields of political science, economics and management, but also in linguistics, sociology, psychology, computer science, operations research and applied mathematics.

Prior to Vanderbilt, Diermeier served as the provost of the University of Chicago, where he was previously the dean of the Harris School of Public Policy. Before that, he was a chaired professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and an Assistant Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

A first-generation college graduate, Diermeier earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester. He also holds master's degrees in political science from the University of Rochester and the University of Munich, and he earned a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Southern California.