Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

February 20, 2021 / 2021 Power 50

2021 Power 50: 8. Thomas Katsouleas

Peter Morenus/UConn Photo Thomas Katsouleas is the president of UConn.
Find out who else is in the 2021 Power 50. 
More Information

As president of UConn, Thomas Katsouleas leads the state’s flagship public research university, and is a key figure in the state's efforts to boost workforce development and entrepreneurship.

When Katsouleas became UConn's president in 2019, he was mostly concerned with significantly ramping up the school's research funding (to $500 million a year over the next decade), boosting innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives and returning UConn athletics' to the Big East conference.


Then COVID-19 hit.

The pandemic last spring forced UConn to close its campuses, which contributed to a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall — mostly due to evaporating housing and dining service revenues. However, UConn reopened its campuses last fall and has kept on-campus COVID transmission rates lower than many similarly-sized institutions across the country, thanks to strict restrictions related to social distancing, mask-wearing and testing for students and faculty.

The pandemic and revenue downturn have forced Katsouleas to make some difficult cost-cutting decisions, including canceling the 2020 football season, and cutting several sports programs. UConn also paused a program Katsouleas started that would have provided last-dollar tuition funding for students whose parents earn under $50,000.

However, the school made some significant strides toward Katsouleas' goals of expanding innovation and entrepreneurship last year, despite COVID’s challenges.

For example, new research awards at UConn and UConn Health reached $286 million in fiscal year 2020, a 7% increase over the previous year, Katsouleas said. UConn and UConn Health faculty also spent nearly $250 million in expenditures for research and other sponsored activity, the highest combined annual amount in the school’s history.

Meantime, startup companies in UConn's Technology Incubation Program (TIP) in Farmington and Storrs raised a record $420 million in 2020, Katsouleas said. That nearly equals funding TIP companies raised over the previous four years combined.

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF