Glaser reflects on his 19-year term as provost

A Gentleman and a Scholar

uis Glaser, who served as the University of Miami’s top academic officer for the past 19 years, knows that career choices are sometimes more serendipitous than deliberate. “I went into biochemistry because I took a wonderful course in the subject,” Glaser recalls of his education at the University of Toronto. “Until then, I was headed to medical school.”

A Ph.D. graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Glaser became one of the researchers in the 1970s who discovered how cells regulate their growth. He eventually became chair of Washington University’s biochemistry department, bringing in millions of research dollars over 11 years.

Now, two decades after Glaser’s appointment as executive vice president and provost, the University of Miami has improved in virtually every category. The number of undergraduate applicants has tripled; SAT scores of incoming freshmen have soared; new academic programs and departments have launched; and research-and sponsored-program expenditures—one of the most critical standards used to judge universities—now approach $270 million annually.

“We’re a different university now,” says Glaser, “but there’s no way I can say that I did it all by myself. It’s the good people who we’ve managed to attract and the things that they have done.”

Glaser remains at the University, teaching biochemistry and biology courses and serving as a special assistant to President Donna E. Shalala. During his tenure as provost, he was a prominent figure at countless UM functions, from groundbreakings to major award presentations. But the press clippings often went to others, and little was ever known about the provost with the elegant Austrian accent and the scientist’s tuft of white hair.

Glaser was born in Vienna in 1932 and was only 6 when he and his parents fled to Mexico at the outbreak of World War II, after the Third Reich’s intentions toward Jews became clear. Glaser lauds his parents for their strong commitment to learning. “We always had people who were painters, artists, writers, and such floating around the house,” he says. “That set a certain intellectual tone that influenced me greatly for a long time.”

Regarding his own two daughters, Glaser says he and his wife, Ruth, didn’t force them down a certain career path. “As parents we should provide them the opportunities, but we shouldn’t put them in a straightjacket and send them in a particular direction.”

His daughter, Nicole, is a pediatric endocrinologist in California, and another daughter, Miriam, is a Miami-Dade Public School teacher. Glaser also has four granddaughters. “It’s an all-female society,” he jokes.

Still a regular on the Coral Gables campus, Glaser might be seen at his favorite spot: Lake Osceola by Hecht-Stanford Residential College. “Standing there for a few minutes, I find this extraordinarily pacifying experience.”

– Robert C. Jones Jr.