Richard H. Herman is a mathematician, currently Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, who had served as the Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2005–2009. He previously served there as Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs since 1998. As provost he garnered support for, and administered, a "faculty excellence" program designed to bring established faculty to the institution. Throughout his administrative tenure, sponsored research at the university increased by more than 50%. Herman promoted private sector partnerships by supporting the creation of a Research Park and, in particular, by helping to secure a $500 million grant from BP (British Petroleum), in partnership with Berkeley. Commitments to the creation of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and the garnering of the Petascale Award with IBM from the National Science Foundation ensured continued scientific and technological leadership for the university Herman helped to secure several gifts including $100 million from alumnus Thomas Siebel for support of research in science and technology, $14 million for a Center for Brazilian Studies from the Lemann Family and an anonymous gift of $40 million for undergraduate student support. President Bush appointed Herman to his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, serving on subcommittees which advised the President on nanotechnology, networking and information technology and university-private sector partnerships. He co-chaired the High Performance Computing Initiative for the Council on Competitiveness as well as serving on the steering committee for its Energy, Security, Innovation and Sustainability Initiative and the Council's Executive Committee. Herman served as chair of the Council of Presidents for the University Research Association in 2007. He also served on, and was chair of, the National Science Foundation's Advisory Committee. Herman's research specializes on mathematical physics and operator algebras.