Henry T. Yang

Henry T. Yang was named UC Santa Barbara’s fifth chancellor in 1994, serving until July 2025. He is currently Distinguished Professor at UC Santa Barbara, holding an endowed Mosher Chair in Engineering. He was formerly the Neil A. Armstrong Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University, where he also served for ten years as the dean of engineering and co-director of NSF ERC in Intelligent Manufacturing Systems. Dr. Yang is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Society for Engineering Education, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has received a number of recognitions for his research, teaching, and public service, including eight honorary doctorates, the UC Presidential Medal, the Arthur M. Bueche Award from the National Academy of Engineering, the Benjamin Garver Lamme Medal from the American Society of Engineering Education, and the Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He currently chairs the Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory (TIO), and serves on the Kavli Foundation Board. He is a past chair of the Association of American Universities and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, and served two terms on the President’s Selection Committee for the National Medal of Science. He also previously served on the judging panel for the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, and on the selection committee for the Millennium Technology Prize in Finland. Previously he has served on scientific advisory boards for the Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. Dr. Yang specializes in aerospace structures, structural dynamics, composite materials, finite elements, transonic aeroelasticity, wind and earthquake structural engineering, and intelligent manufacturing systems. He has authored or co-authored more than 190 articles for scientific journals, as well as a widely used textbook on finite element structural analysis. He has guided 58 Ph.D. and 20 M.S. recipients. In 2007, he received an honorary distinguished teaching award from UC Santa Barbara’s Academic Senate.