Darryll 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.

He has led efforts to address the grand challenges of our time, and 50 university projects have received $30 million in university-sponsored grants to study and implement solutions in areas such as sustainability, literacy, and food, energy and water insecurity. Pines also co-founded the 120 Initiative, an effort to reduce gun violence in collaboration with the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area.

Other signature campus initiatives include the Terrapin Commitment, the largest single-
year investment in need-based scholarships in university history; TerrapinSTRONG, an onboarding program to create a shared understanding of the university’s mission, history and values; and a pledge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2025.

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.

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.

As the principal investigator for Engineering For Us All (e4usa), Pines is 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.