Joseph E. Aoun

For other people named Joseph Aoun, see Joseph Aoun (disambiguation).
Joseph E. Aoun
Aoun in 2008
7th President of Northeastern University
Incumbent
Assumed office
August 15, 2006
Preceded byRichard M. Freeland
Personal details
Born (1953-03-26) March 26, 1953
Beirut, Lebanon
EducationSaint Joseph University of Beirut (BA)
Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis (MA)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsLinguistics
InstitutionsUniversity of Southern California
Northeastern University
ThesisThe formal nature of anaphoric relations (1982)
Doctoral advisorNoam Chomsky

Joseph Elias Aoun[1] (born March 26, 1953)[2] is a Lebanese-born American linguist, currently serving as the 7th president of Northeastern University since August 15, 2006. He was the eighth highest-paid private college president in the United States during the 2022 fiscal year.[3]

He was previously a professor and a dean at the University of Southern California.

Early life and education

Aoun was born in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. He received a masters's degree in oriental languages and literature at the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut in 1975, a Diploma of Advanced Studies in General and Theoretical Linguistics at the University of Paris VIII in 1977, and a PhD in linguistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981.

Career

Aoun joined the University of Southern California (USC) in 1982 as a faculty member in linguistics. During his time at USC, he served as head of the academic Senate and eventually became a Dean. His success in fund-raising allowed for the hiring of multiple professors, the creation of named chairs backed by endowments, and the creation of two new sub-departments for the study of Armenian and Korean.

Northeastern University

Aoun was named the 7th president of Northeastern University in Boston on June 1, 2006.[4] He assumed office on August 15, 2006.[5]

In July 2007, Northeastern University purchased a 5-story townhouse for President Aoun at 34 Beacon Street for $8.9 million.[6]

In November 2009, Aoun and the Board of Trustees oversaw the cancelling of the Northeastern Huskies football program. The program was 8–26 in its preceding three seasons and faced declining attendance and high costs if it wished to remain competitive in recruiting. The move, while controversial, was generally considered positive in retrospect; the funding it freed up allowed for the construction of the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex, which played more directly into Northeastern's strengths. Aoun later said he was overwhelmed with calls from other college presidents asking how he managed the feat without enraging alumni.[7]

Aoun's 2018 salary was around $1.5–1.8 million dollars.[8] In spring 2020, Aoun announced he would donate 20% of his annual salary (~$290,000) to new funds meant to support students facing economic hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and to support research programs related to the crisis.[9] In 2021, his salary reached $2.7 million.[10]

Published book

Aoun's book Robot-Proof was published by the MIT Press on August 14, 2018.[11] The book was published over a year after Aoun wrote a commentary on The Chronicle of Higher Education sharing its first part of the title.[12] In the book, Aoun argues that to thrive alongside increasingly capable AI, education must shift from rote memorization to fostering what he calls "humanics": a blend of creativity, critical thinking, and empathy that enables students to invent, discover, and create value in ways machines cannot. He outlines a framework for continuous lifelong learning that equips people at every career stage with the adaptable skills needed to build fulfilling lives and meet society's evolving needs.[13][14]

Personal life

He is married to his wife Zeina; the couple has two sons, Adrian and Joseph Karim.[15]

Honors and awards

See also

References

  1. ^ "THE FORMAL NATURE OF ANAPHORIC RELATIONS. - ProQuest". www.proquest.com. Retrieved 2025-06-17.
  2. ^ a b "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  3. ^ Curwin, Eli (2024-02-28). "Aoun ranked eighth highest-paid private college president in US". The Huntington News. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  4. ^ Archives, L. A. Times (2006-06-01). "Northeastern U. Names USC Dean as Chief". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  5. ^ "The Arab factor". The Huntington News. 2007-07-19. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  6. ^ "NU buys $8.9m home for president". The Huntington News. 2007-07-24. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  7. ^ Pennington, Bill (December 27, 2019). "Adding Football Saved One College. Dumping It Boosted Another". The New York Times. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
  8. ^ According to Northeastern's 2018 IRS Form 990.
  9. ^ Charlie Wolfson (21 April 2020). "Aoun to give 20 percent of salary to student aid and COVID-19 research". The Huntington News. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  10. ^ Eli Curwin (27 February 2024). "Aoun ranked eighth highest-paid private college president in US, new report finds". The Huntington News.
  11. ^ "Robot-Proof". MIT Press. Retrieved 2025-06-29.
  12. ^ Aoun, Joseph (27 January 2016). "Robot-Proof: How Colleges Can Keep People Relevant in the Workplace". Chronicle. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  13. ^ Aoun, Joseph. "Robot-Proof". Robot-Proof. MIT Press. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  14. ^ "Robot Proof, Sept 12 2017". c-span.org. C-SPAN. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  15. ^ Pamela J. Johnson (22 June 2006). "Trojans Bid Farewell to Joseph Aoun". USC. Archived from the original on 2 January 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  16. ^ "Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun receives France's highest honor". News @ Northeastern. 28 September 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.