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Home  Luncheons Academics David W. Leebron, President, Rice University
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David W. Leebron, President, Rice University |
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 David W. Leebron became the seventh president of Rice University in Houston, Texas, and a member of the School of Social Sciences faculty as professor of political science on July 1, 2004. Rice is one of the country’s premier private research universities and home to the top-rated Shepherd School of Music, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, and other highly ranked engineering, natural sciences, humanities, and architecture schools.
Upon his arrival at Rice, Leebron began engaging faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members in a dialogue on the opportunities and challenges that the university faces in the coming decade and beyond.
His Call to Conversation produced a strategy, the Vision for the Second Century, which calls for Rice to grow in size and scope, including significant increases in its research endeavors and international collaborations. Leebron also has led a wide-reaching program to engage the faculty and students with the city of Houston through the Passport to Houston and extensive community engagement programs.
A native of Philadelphia, Leebron is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was elected president of the Law Review in his second year. After graduating in 1979, he served as a law clerk for Judge Shirley Hufstedler on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles. In 1980, he taught torts as acting assistant professor of law at the UCLA School of Law. In 1981, he joined the New York firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, where he specialized in corporate law. He became a faculty member of the New York University School of Law in 1983 and also served as director of the International Legal Studies Program. In 1989, Leebron joined the faculty of Columbia University School of Law, and in 1996 he was appointed dean and named the Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law. Leebron also served as a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and Comparative Law in Hamburg, Germany, and as the Jean Monnet Visiting Professor of Law at Bielefeld University.
Leebron has authored a textbook on international human rights and written numerous articles on issues of international trade, human rights, and corporate finance. He is a member of the New York State Bar and an inactive member of the Hawaii and Pennsylvania bars.
Leebron is a member of the Carter–Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform, the Jacobs University Bremen Board of Governors, the Harvard Law School Visiting Committee, Greater Houston Partnership Board of Directors and the board of directors of IMAX Corp. He also serves on the centennial committee for Tongji University in Shanghai, China. In 2006, Leebron was presented with the Commandeur de l’Ordre National du Mérite by the French Ambassador to the United States, Jean-David Levitte, on behalf of French President Jacques Chirac.
Leebron is married to Y. Ping Sun and has two young children, Daniel and Merissa. |
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