Darryll J. Pines

Darryll J. Pines has proudly served as the 34th president of the University of Maryland since July 2020. The Glenn L. Martin Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Pines has emphasized achieving excellence in all aspects of university life while creating a diverse and multicultural community that allows everyone to reach their full potential.

Under his leadership, the University of Maryland instituted Fearlessly Forward, a strategic plan that commits the university to reimagining learning; taking on humanity’s grand challenges; investing in people and communities; and partnering to advance the public good.

He spearheaded the creation of the Grand Challenges Grants program, under which 50 university projects received $30 million in university-sponsored grants to study and implement solutions in areas such as sustainability, literacy, and food, energy and water security.  Pines also co-founded the 120 Initiative and the PROGRESS Initiative, activities both focused on reducing gun violence, led the creation of the new Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM); and spearheaded significant investments in quantum research and development to make the College Park region the “Capital of Quantum.”

Through the Terrapin Commitment, Pines created the largest single-year investment in need-based scholarships in university history, pledging up to $20 million annually to dramatically reduce the financial barriers to obtaining a higher education for low-income Marylanders. It has successfully driven the university to increasing its percentage of Pell students from 15% to 17%, and achieving record retention and graduation rates for first-generation students, Pell recipients and the overall student body.

Other signature initiatives include TerrapinSTRONG, an onboarding program to create a shared understanding of the university’s mission, history and values; a pledge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2025; and enhancing the university’s “Do Good” commitment to be the premier higher education institution for turning ideas into societal impact.

Pines has also led a modern transformation of the campus physical plant, shepherding nearly $2 billion in infrastructure projects including the Purple Line Light Rail, the NextGen sustainable energy project, and the Elevate program transition to the Workday platform. Major facilities completed and opened during his tenure include the E.A. Fernandez IDEA Factory, Thurgood Marshall Hall, the new Chemistry Building, Yahentamitsi Dining Hall, Jones-Hill House, Pyon Chen and Johnson-Whittle residence halls, and several remodeled Athletic Facilities including the Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex and Gossett Hall.

As a result, the University of Maryland has now reached its highest public ranking in over a decade and its highest overall ranking in its history from U.S. News and World Report, at #17 and #44, respectively. It now has more than 70 schools, colleges, programs and specialties on U.S. News’ top 25 lists, and placed fifth overall and fourth among public universities in The Princeton Review and Entrepreneurship magazine’s ranking of undergraduate entrepreneurship. The university has also been labeled one of America’s “New Public Ivies” by Forbes and #12 among public universities on their list of America’s Top Colleges.

With a faculty that has nearly 90 members of the national academies—seeing 27 new inductions alone since 2020—and $1.23 billion in combined research expenditures with the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Pines continues to place the University of Maryland at the forefront of critical research in areas such as quantum computing, climate change, AI and data science, and health. The university ranked #9 among U.S. public institutions for patents awarded in 2023, along with other USM institutions according to the National Academy of Inventors, and #11 among public institutions for research and development spending in the National Science Foundation's Higher Education Research and Development Survey. The university recently received a new agreement with a $500 million ceiling from the Department of Defense—the largest research contract in the University of Maryland’s history—to support the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS) and its mission of tackling complex national security problems using a multidisciplinary approach.

Pines first arrived on campus in 1995 as an assistant professor and steadily rose through the ranks of academic leadership. He served as chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering from 2006–09 and for the following 11 years as dean and Nariman Farvardin Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the A. James Clark School of Engineering.

As dean, Pines instituted sweeping changes that improved the student experience, including revamping teaching in fundamental undergraduate courses; encouraging participation in national and international student competitions; emphasizing sustainability engineering and service learning; and expanding innovation and entrepreneurship activities.

Diversity was a hallmark of his tenure, with increases in tenured/tenure-track women faculty, under-represented minority faculty, enrolled women undergraduates and enrolled underrepresented minority undergraduate students.

During the university’s Fearless Ideas campaign, Pines and his leadership team secured a $219.5 million investment—which in 2017 was the sixth-largest gift ever to a public university—from the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation. Since then, Building Together: An Investment for Maryland has funded need-based scholarships campuswide, as well as graduate fellowships, faculty positions, infrastructure and other initiatives.

Pines’ research focuses on structural dynamics, including structural health monitoring and prognosis, smart sensors, and adaptive, morphing and biologically inspired structures as well as the guidance, navigation and control of aerospace vehicles. He holds seven co-authored patents with his students and collaborators.

Prior to his promotion to dean, Pines took a leave of absence from 2003-06 to serve as a program manager for the Tactical Technology Office and Defense Sciences Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He has also held positions at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Chevron Corp. and Space Tethers.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, he is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Institute of Physics; chairs the Engineering Advisory Committee for NSF’s Engineering Directorate; sits on the Board of Trustees for Underwriters Laboratory not-for-profit arm; and serves as a member of the MIT Corporation, the board of trustees for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pines also serves on the Big 10 Conference’s Council of President and Chancellors, as an at-large member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ Board of Directors, and as co-chair of the National Academies’ Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable.

As the principal investigator for Engineering For Us All (e4usa), Pines is also leading efforts to expand engineering education to new generations of high school students and teachers.

Pines received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.