Domenico Grasso (PhD ’87) has served as the university’s 16th president since May 8, 2025.
As president, he has elevated the Look to Michigan vision, positioning U-M as the nation’s leading public interest university through its leadership, service, and talented graduates. This includes establishing the Center for American Dialogue, which encourages civil discourse and empowers people to work effectively across differences.
President Grasso also serves as professor of civil and environmental engineering at UM-Ann Arbor and a secondary appointment as public policy and administration and professor of sustainable engineering at UM-Dearborn.
Domenico Grasso was the sixth chancellor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He began Aug. 1, 2018. He also serves as professor of public policy and administration and professor of sustainable engineering at UM-Dearborn.
President Grasso is widely admired for his visionary work leading the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where he has held the role of chancellor since 2018. During his tenure, the university transitioned to a need-based financial aid model, increased its four-year graduation rate by 16% and, in tripling external research funding, achieved R2 status. He also served as an executive officer at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and became a trusted advisor to leaders across our three campuses.
Before joining UM-Dearborn, he served as provost of the University of Delaware. Previously he was vice president for research and dean of the Graduate College at the University of Vermont and earlier dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at UVM. Prior to joining UVM, he was Rosemary Bradford Hewlett Professor and founding director of the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College, the first engineering program at a women’s college and one of the few in a liberal arts college in the United States; and professor and head of the Department in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Connecticut.
He holds engineering degrees from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (B.Sc.), Purdue University (M.S.) and the University of Michigan (Ph.D.). He is a diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and has been a registered professional engineer in the states of Connecticut and Texas. He was the chair of the National Academies Committee on Grand Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering.
As an environmental engineer, his research focuses on molecular scale processes that govern the ultimate fate of contaminants in the environment and development of new techniques to reduce risks to human health and natural resources. A longtime proponent of environmentally sound and sustainable practice in engineering, he was a member of a World Bank-funded international team of scholars that established the first environmental engineering program in Argentina.
