Luis M. Proenza

Luis M. Proenza
15th President of The University of Akron
In office 1999 – June 30, 2014
Preceded by	Marion A. Ruebel
Succeeded by	Scott L. Scarborough
Personal details
Born	Luis Mariano Proenza (1944-12-22) December 22, 1944 Mexico
Residence	Akron, Ohio
Profession	Educator

Luis Mariano Proenza (born December 22, 1944) is an American academic, and the former president of the University of Akron. He was a previous member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership 2.0 (AMP2.0).

Early life and education

Proenza was born on December 22, 1944, in Mexico City, Mexico. He is the son of Luis Proenza Abreu and Sara Gonzalez de Proenza. For much of his childhood, his parents owned a jewelry business at the Mexico City Airport, which later grew to include another location in Acapulco, which they later sold to focus on the original location. His mother later co-founded an orphanage in Cuernavaca, Mexico, named "Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos," and one in Acapulco as well. Proenza attended primary school in Mexico, where he was taught English from an early age.

At age 11, Proenza relocated to the United States and attended the Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia. There, he was an active member of the Junior ROTC and, in his final year, he was promoted to commanding cadet colonel. The summer after his graduation from Riverside (1962), Proenza started at Emory University where he pursued a major in Psychology under the mentorship of Dr. Bonnie R. Strickland, an eventual professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and President of the American Psychology Association.

Strickland would later recommend Proenza to Ohio State University's clinical psychology program, which he attended after he graduated from Emory in 1965. After completion of his Master's program there, he worked at the University of Connecticut for a year before returning to Mexico where he taught at the University of the Americas for a year and a half. There he met Dr. Starke R. Hathaway, a physiological psychologist, who invited him to the University of Minnesota to pursue a PhD in psychology. He returned to the United States in 1971 where he focused his studies on visual sensitivity as measured neurophysiological responses.

At the University of Minnesota, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Manfred J. Meier, studying the behavioral manifestations of brain trauma and disorders like Parkinson's. After, he worked full-time in Dr. Burkhardt's lab, where he focused on retinal neuroscience. He graduated with a PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1971.

Career

Porenza pursued postdoctoral work the summer after attaining his Ph.D. at the University of Utah with Dr. Thomas H. Ogden. By this time, he had found a great deal of interest in the neuroscience of the retina and decided to home in on that area.

In the 1980s, the neuroscience department at the University of Georgia received an National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, which allowed Proenza to interview for and eventually gain a position in physiological psychology. He began leading Georgia's Vision Research Laboratory and teaching classes there. Soon after, he was offered a full professorship in Georgia's Department of Zoology.

In 1987, Poenza moved to Alaska, where he conducted research at the University of Alaska. Soon after, he was appointed by Louis W. Sullivan to the National Biotechnology Policy Board. This marked his first major position in science policy outside of the National Academies. He was later appointed Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Alaska. While the University of Georgia eventually offered to move his lab to Alaska, he ultimately decided to focus on the administration aspects of his career.

Because of this, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Proenza became involved with facilitating international scientific cooperation in the Arctic. In 1992, he served as the vice-chairman and Commissioner of the United States Arctic Research Commission, which was charged with coordinating U.S. programs in the Arctic. During his time in this position, he met with the Russian Academy of Sciences to facilitate joint collaboration.

While he was still a member of the commission, he left the University of Alaska and joined Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana as vice president for Research and Dean of the Graduate School in 1994. There, he focused on ensuring the growth of Purdue's engineering portfolio.

In 1999, Proenza began as President of the University of Akron. He became very involved in generating a marketing strategy for the university, and as a result, among other factors, Akron grew in terms of student enrollment and facilities. He also developed the University of Akron Research Foundation, which, among other things, encouraged academic-industrial collaboration. He was involved in multiple external organizations at this time, including the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU), and fostered relationships with the Timken Company and other large private companies. In 2014, he was awarded the H. Peter Burg Economic Leadership Award by the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce for his accomplishments as president, which included expanding the university's footprint into downtown and the completion of 21 new facilities, 18 renovations/additions, and 34 acres of green space. Proenza took a sabbatical leave from the university from 2014 to 2016. He returned as a full-time tenured professor in the Office of Academic Affairs in 2016.

From 2001 to 2008, Proenza was on the United States President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under the George W. Bush administration to enable the office of the president to receive advice from the private and academic sectors on technology, scientific research priorities, and math and science education. There, Proenza worked under co-chairs E. Floyd Kvamme and John H. Marburger. They released reports on a range of projects recommended by the President, from homeland security to advancements in biotechnology.

Additionally, in 2006, Proenza served on the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board at the Department of Energy (DOE) on the Science and Mathematics Education Task Force (SMETF). He worked on understanding how the DOE could leverage national laboratory networks to advance education in the sciences.

In 2013, President Barack Obama appointed Proenza and 18 others to the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Steering Committee 2.0, which was created to strengthen the U.S. advanced manufacturing sector.

Personal life

While working at the neuropsychology lab in Minnesota, he became interested in sailing and learned to sail on Lake Minnetonka. Shortly after, he charted a boat in the Caribbean. In 1976, he bought an empty hull and began to build a boat of his own. In the early 80s, Proenza married Theresa Butler Proenza, whom he had met at the University of Georgia. She became interested in building boats as well, and the couple would work together on their boatbuilding project.