The University of Florida board of trustees voted unanimously Aug. 25 to appoint Dr. Donald Landry interim president of the university.
Chair emeritus of Columbia University’s Department of Medicine, Landry is a physician-scientist and president of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.
“Dr. Landry is a highly accomplished scientist whose work is recognized around the world,” Mori Hosseini, chair of the UF board of trustees, said in a news release.
“He has shown exceptional leadership in academia and beyond, building programs with innovation, energy and integrity. I am confident that Dr. Landry will bring those same talents to the University of Florida in service to the students, faculty and people of the great state of Florida.”
Landry’s term begins Sept. 1, 2025. His appointment must be confirmed by Florida’s Board of Governors, which is expected to consider the matter at its next meeting Sept. 10-11. He would replace interim president Ken Fuchs, who is under contract until Sept. 1.
“It is an extraordinary honor to serve the University of Florida at such an important moment in its history. UF has made remarkable strides over the past 10 years and is now recognized as one of the top public universities in the country, and I look forward to working with its remarkable faculty, staff and students to continue building on that momentum,” Landry said in the release.
Landry is the Hamilton Southworth Professor at the New York Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center and director of the Center for Human Longevity at Columbia. He is past physician-in-chief of New York Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center. He founded and directed the Division of Experimental Therapeutics and is the past chief of the Division of Nephrology.
Under his leadership as chair of Columbia’s Department of Medicine, philanthropy grew fourfold, federal funding tripled and the department rose to No. 3 in the national National Institutes of Health rankings. Faculty numbers doubled and clinical revenues reached record highs, establishing Columbia’s Department of Medicine as a national destination for research, teaching and patient care, the release said.
Landry’s research contributions span artificial enzyme approaches to cocaine addiction and overdose, small molecule drug development across neuro, cardiac and oncologic targets and the discovery of the syndrome of vasopressin deficiency in vasodilatory shock states. He has published over 150 articles and holds 50 U.S. patents. He was a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics in 2008-09 and was elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2015.
Landry is both a Ph.D. and an M.D. He completed a doctorate in organic chemistry at Harvard University in 1979 and received a medical degree from Columbia in 1983.
After completing his residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, he returned to Columbia for training as a National Institutes of Health physician-scientist from 1985 to 1990.
In 2008, Landry received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President George W. Bush for “diverse and pioneering research and his efforts to improve the well-being of his fellow man.” The medal was established in 1969 to recognize U.S. citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service for the nation.
The University of Florida has been without a permanent president for more than a year.
President Ben Sasse resigned in July 2024 and Fuchs was named interim president.
The UF Board of Trustees voted unanimously in May to select Santa Ono as president, but the Board of Governors voted to 10-6 in June to reject Ono after questions over DEI, climate activism and other issues.