Dr. Donald J. Leo
President
Donald J. Leo, Ph.D. is the 11th president of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), joining the university on June 1, 2026.
An accomplished administrator with more than 30 years of experience in higher education, Leo is a leader whose career is largely defined by his 11‑year tenure at the University of Georgia, where he served as the first permanent dean of the College of Engineering. Recruited in 2013 to build the college from the ground up, he oversaw fourfold increases in enrollment and research expenditures, created new academic departments, grew annual giving and external partnerships, and spearheaded major renovations of the College’s instructional and research space.
Most recently, Leo served as executive vice president and provost at Ohio University, where he was the institution’s chief academic officer and responsible for overseeing nearly 300 academic programs that enroll over 30,000 students. Prior to his appointment as Dean at UGA, Leo spent more than a decade at Virginia Tech, where he was a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department and focused on applied research opportunities with federal agencies. He served as a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, where he launched new research programs in biologically inspired materials and systems and advanced technologies aligned with national defense priorities. He also was the Vice President and Executive Director of Virginia Tech’s National Capital Region Operations and responsible for growing research partnerships across the Washington D.C. area.
Leo has established a substantial body of scholarly work, having authored or co-authored over 200 research publications and written one of the first textbooks for advanced engineering courses in smart materials. His research focuses on synthesis, modeling and control of active material systems with an emphasis on electroactive polymers and biomolecular materials. Over the course of his career, Leo has been responsible for nearly $12 million in sponsored research funding and has contributed to research projects totaling more than $20 million. Leo has received multiple awards and honors recognizing excellence in engineering research and academic leadership, including election as a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, receipt of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and multiple Distinguished Alumnus Awards from the Aerospace Engineering Department at his alma mater, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Leo holds a doctorate and master’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the University of Buffalo and a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
A native of Park Forest, Illinois, Leo and his wife, Jeannine, have two sons, Jonathan and Matthew.
