Mark S. Wrighton
Chancellor Emeritus, Washington University in St. Louis
President Emeritus, George Washington University
Distinguished Academic Leader and Innovator
Mark S. Wrighton is a distinguished academic leader who has held senior executive roles at three major research universities over the course of more than 30 years.
He is the James and Mary Wertsch Distinguished University Professor and Chancellor Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as President Emeritus of George Washington University.
Trained as a chemist, Wrighton earned a B.S. in chemistry from Florida State University in 1969 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. He began his career in 1972 as a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he later became Head of Chemistry (1987) and Provost (1990).
In 1995 he was elected Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, serving 24 years as chief executive. In 2021 he was chosen for a short-term presidency at the George Washington University to guide the institution through its transition to permanent leadership.
Deeply engaged in public and professional service, Wrighton has served on federal advisory committees and was appointed to the National Science Board (2000–2006).
He has played leading roles in three National Academies studies: Vice Chair of the Committee on America’s Energy Future (2009), Chair of the Committee on the Management of University Intellectual Property (2011), and Chair of the consensus study on The Role of Chemical Research to the U.S. Economy (2022). He also chaired the Association of American Universities (2004–2005), the Business-Higher Education Forum (2004–2006), and the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (2000–2001). For his civic leadership in St. Louis, he was named Citizen of the Year in 2007 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
At MIT, Wrighton’s research centered on photochemistry, electrochemistry, surface chemistry, and molecular electronics. His scholarly output includes nearly 300 publications and 16 patents.
His research achievements earned numerous honors, including the American Chemical Society’s Pure Chemistry Award (1981) and Award in Inorganic Chemistry (1988), the MacArthur Prize Fellowship (1983), and the U.S. Department of Energy’s E. O. Lawrence Award (1983). He has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1986), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1988), and the National Academy of Inventors (2013), and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2001.
Wrighton has advised corporations and higher education institutions and has extensive board experience. He has served on the boards of Azenta Life Sciences, Cabot Corporation, and Corning, Inc. He currently serves as a Life Member Emeritus of the MIT Corporation, on the Board of Trustees of the Institute of International Education, and he served for 5 years on the International Advisory Board of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
