On February 13, 2025, Keck Graduate Institute celebrated the inauguration of Dr. Mohamed Abousalem as the 3rd president of the Institute.
Dr. Mohamed Abousalem is the third Keck Graduate Institute president and began his leadership on July 1, 2024.
Read MoreThursday, February 13, 2025 | 10:00 a.m.
The Garrison Theater of The Claremont Colleges
A tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, an investiture is an academic ceremony in which a new leader is “vested” with the official powers of office. Typically held during a president's first year, the ceremony provides an opportunity for the community to celebrate a new era in the university’s history.
The investiture is a ceremony of dignity with many academic traditions and protocols. It features an academic procession of delegates from other colleges and universities as well as the institution’s own faculty. Marchers wear their academic regalia. The event includes greetings from members of the university community.
During President Abousalem’s investiture, a Presidential Medallion with the chain of office for the KGI presidency was conferred. The Presidential Medallion is a symbol of President Abousalem’s responsibilities to the Institute.
View the ceremony photosWatch the recording of the investiture ceremony of KGI's 3rd president, Dr. Mohamed Abousalem.
Tuesday, February 11, 2025 | 11:45 a.m.
KGI 517 Building - Room 165 (Founders Room)
President Abousalem moderated an engaging conversation about leadership in biosciences, biotechnology, pharma, R&D, innovation, and more with three distinguished panelists.
Dr. Rosa Canet-Avilés
Chief Science Officer for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)
Dr. David Morris
Vice Chancellor of Innovation Ventures for University of California San Francisco
Michelle Schroeder
KGI Trustee; Vice President of R&D Strategy and Operations for Amgen
Dr. Mohamed Abousalem (/æ-bu-SÆL-əm/) is the third Keck Graduate Institute president and began his leadership on July 1, 2024.
Dr. Abousalem’s distinguished career spans executive positions at non-profit organizations, private industry, and academia, focused on catalyzing technology solutions and advancing research and innovation. His deep experience in California includes serving most recently as the inaugural Vice President for Research and Innovation at San Jose State University (SJSU) and as President of the Board of Directors of the SJSU Research Foundation. At SJSU, he led the strategic growth of student-engaged research as he grew the SJSU research enterprise from $47M to $84M in five years. He also established the innovation strategic plan to serve as the blueprint for supporting student, faculty, and alumni entrepreneurs through technology transfer, a startup incubator, and several industry partnerships.
Prior to SJSU, Dr. Abousalem led the University of California Santa Cruz’s (UCSC) technology transfer, commercialization, and entrepreneurship enterprise. There, he doubled the annual number of invention disclosures, generated substantial state funding, and established a wet-lab incubator and a Silicon Valley startup accelerator. In 2022, Governor Newsom appointed Dr. Abousalem to the Board of Directors of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Dr. Abousalem also served on several other community and corporate boards, including technology startup companies,
Under his leadership as founding chief executive officer of TECTERRA, a Canadian not-for-profit organization supporting technology commercialization, the organization invested over $40 million to nurture 200 startup companies and 25 applied research projects, generating over $325 million in economic impact. Prior to TECTERRA, he led several large-scale, multi-national technology and business operations and developed several partnerships.
Dr. Abousalem succeeds Dr. Sheldon M. Schuster, who led KGI for 21 years, leading it from one program and 50 students to more than 600 students enrolled across more than a dozen programs.
President Abousalem’s scholarship and technical expertise focused on satellite positioning and navigation using the global positioning system (GPS) technology. He holds a BS in civil engineering from Alexandria University, Egypt; an MS and Ph.D. in geomatics engineering from the University of Calgary, Canada; and an MBA from Santa Clara University.