Alice P. Gast Biography

On August 1, 2006, Alice P. Gast became the thirteenth president of Lehigh University. A world-renowned scholar, researcher and academic leader with a strong commitment to students and teaching, Gast was appointed following a highly competitive and rigorous national search.

Before coming to Lehigh, Gast served at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the vice president for research and associate provost and held the Robert T. Haslam chair in chemical engineering. Prior to moving to MIT in 2001, she spent 16 years as a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University and at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory.

Well known as an outstanding teacher and scholar, Gast studies surface and interfacial phenomena, in particular the behavior of complex fluids. Her areas of research include colloidal aggregation and ordering, protein lipid interactions, and enzymes reactions at surfaces. She is the co-author of Physical Chemistry of Surfaces, a classic textbook on colloid and surface phenomena, and has presented a number of named lectures at the nation's leading research institutions.

Gast has served on various advisory committees and boards, including the NRC Board on Chemical Science and Technology, and the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Physical Society.

In recognition of her achievements, Gast has garnered numerous awards and honors including the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiative in Research, the Colburn Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2001, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002. She was named AAAS Fellow in early 2007.

After earning a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Southern California, Gast received a master's degree and a doctorate in chemical engineering from Princeton University. After earning her Ph.D., Gast spent a postdoctoral year on a NATO fellowship at the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles in Paris.

Gast is married to Bradley J. Askins, a computer scientist specializing in the performance of large scale databases and computer systems. The couple has two children: Rebecca and David. The family enjoys the outdoors, especially gardening, hiking, bicycling, and cross-country skiing.

View the President's web site >