RICHARD MCCULLOUGH

PRESIDENT, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY, TALLAHASSEE

McCullough, who has served as president of FSU since 2021, brings more than 30 years of academic research and leadership experience to the role. As a professor, he contributed to basic and applied research in printable electronics and trained graduate students, postdoctoral students and undergraduate students who have gone on to achieve much success. As an academic administrator at Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University and Florida State University, he has spearheaded research initiatives that helped transform those universities. As an entrepreneur, he founded two companies that created 90 jobs and helped commercialize printable electronic materials. As someone who was the first in his family to go to college, he’s also a passionate champion of first-generation college students.

EDUCATION: University of Texas at Dallas (BS), Johns Hopkins University (MA, Ph.D.)

FIRST JOB: When I was 10 years old, I worked as a paper boy and delivered circulars door-to-door. At age 15, I worked as a dishwasher at Pizza Inn.

MENTEE IMPACT: When I was an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon, I gave a lecture at George Washington University and met an undergraduate student named Malika Jefferies-El. She struck me as a very bright student with significant potential. I told her if she wanted a postdoc in the future, I would hire her. She accepted my offer a couple years later after she earned her doctorate. Malika went on to become a professor at Iowa State University and now teaches at Boston University.

SOMETHING SURPRISING: I love music and taught myself to play almost all chords on the piano. I am also learning how to play guitar.

DREAM ALTERNATE CAREER
“If I could do anything, I would love to be the lead guitarist for a rock band.”