Senior Vice Provost for Academic Programs, Student Success, and Effectiveness named

Dear faculty, staff and students,

I am pleased to announce that Nikos Varelas has been named Senior Vice Provost for Academic Programs, Student Success, and Effectiveness, pending approval of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. He began serving in this capacity on an interim basis Nov. 16.

Varelas is the Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics. Since October 2022, he served as Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Effectiveness. In this role, he led UIC through several major efforts, including the Higher Learning Commission 10-Year Comprehensive Accreditation Review process and site visit, UIC’s equity-based strategic plan for the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the streamlining of transfer pathways and degree planning for students from City Colleges of Chicago, other Illinois community colleges and Chicago Public Schools. Varelas also serves as the Higher Learning Commission Accreditation Liaison Officer for UIC.

Previously, Varelas was Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs and Academic Programs for six years, leading UIC’s student success efforts and implementing and advancing an array of innovative campus-wide student success programs and initiatives which contributed to significant improvements in student achievement and success. He also secured approximately $10 million in philanthropic grants and endowments during that time.

Before his vice provost positions, Varelas served as Associate Dean for Student Academic Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. During his tenure, he championed novel student success initiatives and oversaw curricular reforms that led to the creation of a bachelor’s degree program, a master's degree program and four new minors.

Varelas has been collaborating with a broad range of partners at the state and national levels, including community-based organizations, the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, Excelencia in Education, Undergraduate Education at Research Universities and the University Innovation Alliance. He is currently president of the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities and a member of the board of directors for the Noble Schools.

Varelas’ research is in the field of high-energy particle physics, exploring the fundamental constituents of the universe and their interactions. He was a member of the team of scientists who discovered the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland in 2012. He has held several leadership positions in his field, including co-spokesperson of the Coordinated Theoretical-Experimental Project on QCD Collaboration, member of the executive committee of the American Physical Society’s Division of Particles and Fields, chair of the Fermilab Users Executive Committee and senior fellow of the Large Hadron Collider Physics Center at Fermilab. His publication record exceeds 1,800 peer-reviewed journal articles and he is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a University of Illinois Scholar. Varelas earned his doctorate in physics from the University of Rochester.

I look forward to working with Varelas in his new senior vice provost role. In that capacity, he will lead a team of highly accomplished and dedicated professionals to advance programs, efforts and initiatives that are significantly enhancing the success of our students, including the Office of Student Success and Belonging, the Office for Advising Development and a new undergraduate research hub.

Please join me in congratulating Nikos Varelas on his new role as Senior Vice Provost for Academic Programs, Student Success, and Effectiveness.

Sincerely,

Karen J. Colley
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs