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Upcoming USC Aiken Chancellor Investiture

Aiken, SC (03/10/2022) — The University of South Carolina Aiken's (USC Aiken) upcoming Chancellor Investiture will be held on Friday, March 18, 2022, at 10:30 a.m. on the university's campus. This event is in celebration of the university's 60th anniversary and the installation of Dr. Daniel Heimmermann as USC Aiken's fifth chancellor.

Scheduled guest speakers include Dr. Harris Pastides, interim president of the University of South Carolina; Tom Young, senator; Major General Brad Owens; Rusty Monhollon, South Carolina Commission on Higher Education; Teresa Haas, chair of the Aiken County Commission for Higher Education; Gary Bunker, chairman, Aiken County Council; Rick Osbon, mayor of the City of Aiken; Dr. Vahid Mjidi, representing the Aiken Business Community; Blake Leaphart, president of the USC Aiken Alumni Association; Dr. Alexandra Roach, chair of the USC Aiken Faculty Assembly; Ellis Reeves, chair of the USC Aiken Classified Employees Assembly; Eva Slagle, president of the USC Aiken Student Government Association; and Dr. Thayer McGahee, dean of the USC Aiken School of Nursing.

Dr. Heimmermann was named the fifth chancellor of USC Aiken on July 1, 2021.

Originally from Wisconsin, Chancellor Heimmermann received undergraduate degrees in history and Spanish before earning Master of Arts and Ph.D. degrees in early-modern French history from Marquette University.

Before coming to USC Aiken, Dr. Heimmermann served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas Permian Basin (2014-2021), where he ranked as the senior-most chief academic officer in the University of Texas System. Prior to this appointment, he held the same role at Mississippi University for Women (2012-2014). From 2008-2012 he served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Brownsville (presently The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley).

Chancellor Heimmermann began his academic career at the University of North Alabama (1994-2008), where he served as a professor of history and chair of the Department of History and Political Science (2001-2008). As a faculty member, Dr. Heimmermann was the recipient of several research fellowships and was recognized for excellence in teaching. A historian of early-modern France, Dr. Heimmermann has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in early-modern European history and the French Revolution and Napoleonic periods.

Dr. Heimmermann's area of research is French social, economic, and cultural history, specifically the history of preindustrial labor. He has conducted extensive archival research in Paris, France at the Archives Nationales and Biliotheque Nationale and in Bordeaux, France at the Archives Departementales de la Gironde and the Archives Municipales de Bordeaux. His scholarly work has been presented at national and international conferences on French and European history. His research has appeared in published scholarly articles and a book, Work, Regulation, and Identity in Provincial France, which explores the preindustrial manufacturing economy and craft worker culture of eighteenth-century Bordeaux.

Throughout his administrative career, Chancellor Heimmermann has taken a leading role in conceiving, creating, advocating, and implementing innovative and accessible undergraduate and graduate academic programs which address student, industry, and societal needs. He has led the creation of signature programs in engineering, business, nursing, and numerous industry-aligned graduate and undergraduate certificate programs in emerging areas such as cyber security, data science, gaming and simulation, network administration security, software development, and website design and development. In support of these programs, Dr. Heimmermann established colleges in health sciences and human performance, engineering, nursing, business, as well as academic and research centers/institutes in biomedical science, cyber security and information, natural resource management, and water and energy whose applied research focus on solving the nation's most pressing challenges.

At USC Aiken, Chancellor Heimmermann leads the intrepid pursuit of the university's noble mission by supporting high-quality academic programs and engaged teaching and learning, impactful research, service, and partnerships with the community, a laser-focus on student success and communicating the university's impact to its constituents.

This fall, Dr. Heimmermann will lead a collaborative strategic planning process that will build upon the university's tremendous legacy to determine the priorities, goals, and strategies that will guide the university for the next five years.

Chancellor Heimmermann is an avid sports fan. When he is not supporting Pacer athletics, he is - having grown up only twenty miles from the "Frozen Tundra" of Lambeau Field - quite naturally a diehard Green Bay Packer fan. In fact, he is one of 360,584 "owners" of the publicly held team.

Above all, Dr. Heimmermann enjoys spending time with his family. He is married to Claudia, and they have a fifteen-year-old daughter, Lucie, and two dogs, Sofie and Ollie.