Dear Campus Community,
After a successful national search, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Victoria Coleman as the Associate Provost for the Berkeley Space Center (BSC). In this role, she will help shape BSC. She begins her appointment this coming week.
Coleman brings to Berkeley a distinguished record of cross-disciplinary leadership and will play a key role in advancing the campus’s research and innovation enterprise. She most recently served as CEO of Acubed and Head of Research & Technology for Airbus for North America, where she focused on solving some of the most complex and forward-leaning challenges facing the aerospace industry. Prior to that, Coleman served in national leadership roles, including as the 37th Chief Scientist of the Department of the United States Air Force and as the 22nd Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where she led transformative programs in hypersonics, microelectronics, biotechnology, and computer science.
Coleman was instrumental in the formulation and passage of the CHIPS Act, a $52.7 billion initiative to re-invigorate leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S., including the $2 billion Microelectronics Commons provision. Coleman also led the launch of the first-ever Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) University Affiliated Research Center (UARC), a $60 million initiative dedicated to developing and demonstrating autonomous technologies. In partnership with the U.S. House of Representatives, she championed the creation of a $10 million-per-year Hispanic Research University Alliance Advanced Technology Institute. She brings deep expertise and a strong commitment to inclusive excellence, which will help shape the vision for sustainable space engineering and equitable access to emerging technologies.
She is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering and has received numerous honors, including the Air Force’s Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service and has served on multiple high-level national science and defense advisory boards, including the Defense Science Board, where she helped shape strategic science and technology priorities for the Department of Defense.
Victoria holds a Ph.D. in computer science and began her career in academia before moving into industrial research and federal service. Throughout her varied professional journey, one guiding thread has remained constant: a commitment to building safer, more trusted, and more accessible technologies that serve the public good.
You can learn more about Victoria Coleman on Berkeley News
Please join me in welcoming Victoria to the UC Berkeley community.
Sincerely,
Benjamin E. Hermalin
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost