Steven B. Sample became the 10th president of the University of Southern California (USC) in March 1991. He is the university’s first holder of the Robert C. Packard President’s Chair.
Dr. Sample is an electrical engineer, a musician, an outdoorsman, an inventor, and author of an acclaimed new book, The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, which is now a Los Angeles Times best-seller, was chosen by the Toronto Globe and Mail as one of the top 10 business books of 2001, and has been translated into five languges. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a tenured professor in the USC School of Engineering. His patents on digital appliance controls have been licensed to practically every major manufacturer of appliance controls and microwave ovens in the world. Over 300 million home appliances have been built using his inventions.
He and his wife, Kathryn, came to USC from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he served as president from 1982 to 1991. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, and he holds honorary degrees from the University of Nebraska, Purdue University, the University of Sheffield in England, Canisius College, and Hebrew Union College.
