President, Williams College
Since becoming the 17th president of Williams in April 2010, Adam Falk has focused on advancing the college’s mission of providing the finest possible liberal arts education by working with faculty to strengthen the curriculum, further enrich student residential life, and maximize the educational value derived from the growing diversity of the college’s students, faculty, and staff.
He has overseen a wide reorganization of the college administration and led the successful effort to raise the funds needed to resume the $82 million Sawyer Library Project, which will transform teaching and learning in the humanities and social sciences.
Falk joined the college from the Johns Hopkins University, where he served at the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences as the James B. Knapp Dean and earlier as Dean of the Faculty.
A high-energy physicist and award-winning teacher whose research focuses on elementary particle physics and quantum field theory, Falk is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a winner of prestigious awards from the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, the Research Corporation, and the Sloan Foundation.
Falk graduated with highest distinction as a Morehead-Cain Scholar from the University of North Carolina in 1987 and earned his Ph.D. in 1991 from Harvard University, where he received numerous awards for excellence in undergraduate teaching. He held postdoctoral appointments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and the University of California, San Diego, before joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 1994.
Falk and his wife Karen reside in the Williams President’s House with their three children: Briauna, David, and Alex.