Monaco ’81 will head Tufts University

Anthony Monaco ’81, pro-vice chancellor for planning and resources at University of Oxford, will become the 13th president of Tufts University in summer 2011, Tufts announced Tuesday.

Monaco, a noted neuroscientist and geneticist, has spent nearly 20 years at Oxford and stepped into his current position in 2007. As pro-vice chancellor, he has played an active role in increasing access to the university; securing additional support for the humanities; and strategic academic, capital and enrollment planning, among other initiatives.

“I was very, very excited because ... in many ways, this was a dream job,” Monaco said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. “I knew this was the perfect match.” Monaco spent Tuesday visiting the university’s three campuses in Massachusetts.

Monaco explained that his personal values for higher education intersect with those at Tufts, citing the university’s international perspective, emphasis on diversity and inclusion, strong life sciences programs, integration of research and teaching, and commitment to financial aid.

Once a first-generation college student, Monaco said he considers his financial-aid package the most significant aspect of his Princeton experience.

“I wouldn’t have been able to afford attending Princeton if it were not for that package, so it really opened my eyes to the power of need-blind admissions,” he said.

Monaco said in a Tufts statement: “I was the first student at my high school to ever apply to, let alone attend, an Ivy League college. This was an enormous step. Both of my parents instilled a love of learning in all their children, but I wouldn’t have been able to make that leap without incredible mentors and Princeton’s generous financial aid. I’m passionate about increasing access to higher education, and I know that Tufts shares that passion.” Tufts has more than doubled its undergraduate financial aid since 2001.

Ian Walmsley, pro-vice chancellor for research at Oxford, described Monaco as a “generous and engaging colleague.”

“Tony has a clear vision [for Tufts] and a mastery of the administrative means to realize that vision,” Walmsley said in an e-mail.

Tufts professor Carla Brodley, who was part of the 13-member search committee for Tufts’ new president that first convened last February, also said in an e-mail that Monaco’s “global vision” was one of his major strengths.

Brodley stressed Monaco’s credentials as an academic and a researcher.

“First, he is a true scholar,” she said. “This means he will command the respect and cooperation of the faculty.”

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

James Stern, chair of Tufts’ board of trustees, emphasized Monaco’s qualifications beyond his academic credentials.

“What attracted us to Dr. Monaco was far beyond his record doing world-class, mind-boggling research,” he said. “We’re talking about someone who understands the important combination of world-class research and an emphasis on teaching, someone who understands academic inclusion and making a college education available to all.”

Monaco was the lead researcher for a team that discovered the first important gene related to speech and language disorders, and he has contributed to work on other complex disorders involving multiple genes.

His research focuses on the genetic factors driving neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, specific language impairment, dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Monaco also served as director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics from 1998 to 2007, leading the center as it doubled in size to become the largest university-based research center with external funding in the United Kingdom.

Nick Rawlins, pro-vice chancellor for development and external affairs at Oxford, said in an e-mail that Monaco “has been clear-thinking, thoughtful and knowledgeable: a very supportive colleague, but perhaps most critically someone who while challenging one’s assumptions was always prepared to listen to one’s arguments, if they were sufficiently good ones.”

“He will be a hard act to follow,” Rawlins added.

Monaco described Princeton President Shirley Tilghman as a role model in making his career transition.

“It was very nice to see how she went straight from a research career to managing a large and complex university, and she was very helpful when I decided to go down that path as well,” he said to the ‘Prince.’ “In many respects, she was quite an influence.”

Monaco was an independent concentrator at Princeton, authoring a thesis titled “Intracerebral Self-Injection of D-Amphetamine into the Nucleus Accumbens in Rats.” He then earned an M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard.

Monaco will succeed Lawrence Bacow, who will have served a decade as president of Tufts when he steps down next summer.