Reginald DesRoches is the eighth president of Rice University, one of the country’s highest-ranked private institutions.

Here’s what to know about the administrator. 

DesRoches is the first Black and foreign-born president of Rice

DesRoches was a historic pick when he took the helm in 2022. Many noted the significance, especially because of Rice’s racial history: A slaveowner chartered the university for white inhabitants only, and the campus did not accept its first Black undergraduate student until 1965.

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DesRoches was born in 1967 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and raised in Queens, NY. Neither of his parents had college degrees but instilled the importance of education in DesRoches and his siblings. His father said they could be one of four things when they grew up: “a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer or a disappointment,” DesRoches has said.

He pursued a degree in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, where he also received a master’s degree in civil engineering and a doctorate in structural engineering. One of his siblings became a doctor, another became a lawyer, and a third is the chief financial officer at AT&T.

He is a nationally recognized expert in earthquake resilience

The researcher has said he found his career path after witnessing the damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco, which caused him to contemplate how structural engineering and improved design could help structures perform better in earthquakes.

His expertise made him a leader in the U.S.’ response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, which killed more than 316,000 people and caused at least $8 billion in damage. DesRoches directed a team of 28 engineers, architects, city planners and social scientists to study the impact of the natural disaster, according to Rice. He has also participated in congressional briefings on the role university research can play in addressing infrastructure ahead of such events.

DesRoches’ work has led to many awards. Among them are the 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers Charles Martin Duke Lifeline Earthquake Engineering Award and the 2007 ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize. He won the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Distinguished Lecturer award in 2018.

He is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the society's Structural Engineering Institute. DesRoches is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Philosophical Society of Texas.

He has overseen major growth at Rice and Georgia Tech

DesRoches’ spent nearly 20 years at the Georgia Institute of Technology, rising the ranks to become chair of the civil and environmental engineering school. There, his fundraising efforts doubled the number of endowed chairs and professors, and he oversaw a $13.5 million renovation of the engineering school’s main facilities.

He also served as the school’s liaison between the university faculty and its athletics department and later was appointed to the Atlantic Coast Conference leadership team.  

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DesRoches arrived at Rice in 2017. As dean of engineering, he led the largest school on campus and expanded the faculty by nearly 20%. He meanwhile strengthened collaborations with the Texas Medical Center, launched new interdisciplinary initiatives and led efforts to boost research and recruiting in China and India.

In 2019, DesRoches became the highest-ranking African-American in Rice history with an appointment to the provost position. He led the faculty through COVID-19 with a quick pivot to remote learning, and he created new partnerships with the Texas Medical Center, launched a new undergraduate business major and established the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Presidential goals include more expansion

DesRoches succeeded longtime President David Leebron in 2022. Continuing with an effort he began as provost, he is now leading the first major expansion of the undergraduate student body in over a decade. He had also announced plans to hire more than 200 new faculty within five years.

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The growth effort comes with $300 million planned in physical projects, as of the time the project launched in 2021. A new student center, two residence halls and a new dining hall are in the works.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives remain on his list of priorities in the presidential office. And DesRoches has already launched several new research institutes as he hopes to place graduate programs on level with the better-known undergraduate program.  

Diversity remains a focus despite national, state challenges 

DesRoches wrote an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle after the end of affirmative action, voicing his disappointment in the decision while affirming his commitment to pursuing a diverse student body.

Rice administrators are vocal in their support of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which has continued at the university as its peers in public sector can no longer fund such offices in Texas. In Oct. 2023, DesRoches told Bloomberg that Texas’ conservative political environment was still having an adverse affect on faculty recruiting.

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As provost and later president, DesRoches has focused on recruiting diverse faculty and staff. Since 2017, the number of Black professors at Rice has nearly doubled.

DesRoches has also launched partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including Texas Southern University, and championed programs for underrepresented minorities and first-generation students.

He has had to navigate social movements on campus

In his positions as provost and president, DesRoches supported the Task Force on Slavery, Segregation, and Racial Injustice in its work to address Rice’s fraught racial history. He is now overseeing a redesign of the Academic Quadrangle, which will recontextualize a statue of the university’s controversial founder.  

More recently, DesRoches has worked with members of the Jewish community who remain concerned about antisemitism at Rice.

DesRoches is a runner

Students and faculty might occasionally spot DesRoches running through the university’s famous oak trees in the morning.

In 2022, he raised awareness for frequent prostate cancer screenings when he announced he underwent surgery for the disease.

DesRoches is married to Paula DesRoches, a nurse practitioner and occupational health consultant at Houston Methodist, according to the university. They have three children, one of whom was a student and soccer player at Rice.