Gary S. May

Gary Stephen May (born May 17, 1964) is the chancellor of the University of California, Davis.

May graduated in 1985 with a B.E.E. degree in electrical engineering.

He then attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned an M.S. (1987) and Ph.D. (1991), both in electrical engineering and computer science.

May joined the Georgia Tech ECE faculty in 1991 as a member of the School's microelectronics group.

His research is in the field of computer-aided manufacturing of integrated circuits.

He was a National Science Foundation "National Young Investigator" (1993–98) and was Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing (1997–2001).

He has authored over 200 articles and technical presentations in the area of IC computer-aided manufacturing.

In 2001, he was named Motorola Foundation Professor, and was appointed associate chair for Faculty Development.

May is the founder of Georgia Tech's Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering/Science (SURE) program, a summer research program designed to attract talented minority students into graduate school.

He also is the founder and director of Facilitating Academic Careers in Engineering and Science program (FACES), a program designed to encourage minority engagement in engineering and science careers in academia.

May was a National Science Foundation and an AT&T Bell Laboratories graduate fellow, and has worked as a member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

He is a member of the National Advisory Board of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).

From May 2005 to June 2011, he was the Steve W. Chaddick School Chair of the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech.

He served as the Dean of the Georgia Tech College of Engineering from July 2011 until June 2017.

May has been a member of the Board of Directors for defense contractor Leidos since 2015.

Succeeding former UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, he has received criticism since taking the position for participating in outside boards.

His involvement with Leidos—which frequently works with government agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the National Security Agency, United States Border Patrol, and the United States Department of Homeland Security—has prompted criticism from media outlets and students in the Davis community.

The University of California Board of Regents confirmed Gary S. May as UC Davis chancellor on Feb. 23, 2017.

He officially started his post on Aug. 1, 2017.

He leads the most comprehensive campus in the University of California system, with four colleges and six professional schools.

UC Davis enrolls just over 40,000 students, brings in more than $1 billion annually in sponsored research and contributes $12 billion annually to California’s economy.

In 2018, May was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to semiconductor manufacturing research and innovations in educational programs for underrepresented groups in engineering.

May was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was a member of the ANAK Society.

In 2018, Chancellor May established task forces on food insecurity, housing and health care and established the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Feb. 2019.

Along with campus leaders and civic officials from the city of Davis and Yolo County, Chancellor May helped lead the Healthy Davis Together initiative.

The effort launched in November 2020 and included free saliva-based testing for COVID-19 that was open to the UC Davis community and residents of Yolo County.

Samples were processed at the UC Davis Genome Center.

An evaluation of the program by Mathematica found that COVID-19 case counts were reduced by 60 percent in the city of Davis.

Throughout his career, he has championed diversity and mentorship in both higher education and the workplace.

He developed nationally recognized programs to attract, mentor and retain underrepresented groups in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

In 2023, May partnered with his mentor to establish the "Professor Emeritus Augustine O. Esogbue and Chancellor Gary May Endowed Award in Engineering Diversity" at UC Davis.

Under his leadership, UC Davis has risen in national and global rankings including number one in the nation for Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture and Forestry and ranks second in the world, according to QS rankings.