Richard L. McCormick, PhD

Richard L. McCormick, PhD, serves as the interim president of Stony Brook University, an internationally recognized flagship research institution ranked as the No. 1 public university in New York State. Appointed in August 2024, McCormick also oversees Long Island’s premier academic healthcare system, Stony Brook Medicine, and serves as co-chair of board of The New York Climate Exchange, a historic partnership anchored by Stony Brook University to build an international climate solutions center on Governors Island.

With nearly four decades of leadership service in public higher education, including presidencies at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and the University of Washington, and service as vice chancellor and provost of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, McCormick is an accomplished academic leader with a distinguished record of success leading large, complex flagship institutions.

McCormick is an eminent scholar of American political history, with a BA in American studies from Amherst College and a PhD in history from Yale University. In addition to numerous articles and chapters, he has authored or co-authored four books, including Raised at Rutgers: A President’s Story; From Realignment to Reform: Political Change in New York State, 1893–1910, and; The Party Period and Public Policy: American Politics From the Age of Jackson to the Progressive Era. He is currently working on a new book on American political corruption from the 17th century to the present.

He is a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars fellowship and the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies visiting fellowship at Princeton University. He has also received an honorary professorship from Shanghai University and is an honorary doctor of laws at Rutgers.