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Provost Kliger's Biography

Campus Provost Kliger Photo by Tim Stephens, UCSC Public Information

Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor David Kliger began his research career studying the pigments in the eye that make it possible for animals to see and have color vision. He became a pioneer in the use of extremely fast laser pulses to study how molecules interact with light, and he now heads one of the top laboratories in the world in this field.

Dr. Kliger joined the UCSC faculty in 1971 and has served as Chair of his department, Chair of the UCSC Academic Senate, and Chair of the Academic Senate Committee on Academic Personnel. He was appointed Dean of the Division of Natural Sciences in 1990. In March of 2005 Dr. Kliger was appointed to the position of Interim Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor and has been in the position on a permanent basis since September, 2005. Despite his administrative duties, he maintains a very active research laboratory.

Dr. Kliger's research career has straddled the boundaries of chemistry, physics, and biology. He has developed new ultrasensitive analytical techniques and has used them to study the chemical structures and functions of a variety of protein molecules.