Katsouleas takes helm as UConn’s 16th pres.

UConn Photo | Peter Morenus Thomas C. Katsouleas is UConn's 16th president.

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By Joe Cooper

Thomas Katsouleas, a former top official of the University of Virginia, took office Thursday as UConn’s 16th president.

Katsouleas, 61, replaces former President Susan Herbst, who returned to teaching this summer as a professor after leading the flagship state university for the last eight years. Katsouleas will be officially inaugurated as UConn’s president at an Oct. 4 ceremony at its Storrs campus.

Katsouleas, most recently University of Virginia's provost and executive vice president, was unanimously appointed by UConn’s board of trustees in February.

He will earn a base salary of $525,000 with a $50,000 performance-based incentive and $75,000 in annual deferred compensation at the end of each year.

UConn’s board has also approved investing $740,000 to purchase a 5,000-square-foot single-family home for Katsouleas. The university will use money generated from rental and other income from school-owned properties to cover the costs, according to the Associated Press.

In a letter to the school community Thursday, Katsouleas said he has an “ambitious agenda” for the university that will require “engagement of every constituent” of UConn.

An inventor and researcher, Katsouleas spent 14 years teaching at the University of Southern California before serving as dean of Duke University’s engineering school for seven years. Katsouleas was named provost, which is the chief academic officer, at the University of Virginia in 2015.

He earned a bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in physics from UCLA in 1979 and 1984, respectively.