A little more than three months after the University of Hawai‘i officially launched a national search to reestablish the chancellor position at its flagship Mānoa campus, the UH Board of Regents unanimously approved the appointment of Vassilis Syrmos to the role during a special meeting Thursday, June 4.
Syrmos is no stranger to the university, joining UH Mānoa 35 years ago as a faculty member in the College of Engineering, an announcement from the university on Thursday noted. He has served as interim provost of UH Mānoa since July 2025, and spent 12 years as UH vice president for research and innovation and eight years as associate vice chancellor for research at UH Mānoa.
He starts in his new role on July 1.
"I am honored by the confidence placed in me and grateful for the opportunity to serve UH Mānoa at this important moment,” Syrmos said in the announcement. “While I know the university well, I also know there is always more to learn. My first priority will be to visit every school, college and major unit across UH Mānoa to listen and learn directly from our students, faculty and staff. The strength of this university has always been its people, and I believe our best path forward begins by listening first.”
In his role as interim provost, UH says Syrmos helped secure legislative support for the UH Cancer Center's research and helped strengthen its ability to maintain a National Cancer Institute designation, among other efforts. And while vice president for research and innovation, he led long-range strategic planning efforts that led extramural funding to record growth, including a high of $734 million in fiscal year 2025 — the fourth straight year that UH exceeded $500 million in research funding.
As chancellor, Syrmos will serve as the campus' CEO, reporting to the university president and serving on the president's senior leadership team, UH says. According to the university, he'll oversee an annual budget of more than $800 million and more than 5,000 employees, "leading academic affairs, research, student success, enrollment and administrative operations in partnership with the provost and executive team."
UH President Wendy Hensel recently recommended Syrmos for the position after the nationwide search, which kicked off in February.
Syrmos will make an annual salary of $450,000, or $37,500 a month, according to a May 28 memorandum from Hensel to Board of Regents Chair Gabriel Lee.
Currently, the UH president also holds the campus' chancellor responsibilities, while academic affairs, research, enrollment management and student affairs are led by the provost, UH explained in February.
But this isn't the first time the president and chancellor roles have been separated. Over the decades, the BOR has approved two primary leadership structures for UH Mānoa: one where there was a dedicated chancellor role and a combined chancellor-president role, the memo states.
According to the memo, the College of Hawai‘i was led by the UH president from 1907 to 1972. There was a dedicated chancellor role at UH Mānoa from 1972 to 1985, as the UH system and its campuses continued to grow, but the roles were combined to oversee both Mānoa and the UH system from 1985 to 2001.
A dedicated chancellor role split from the UH president again from 2001 to 2019, and the roles were combined again starting in 2019, "with established hybrid functions and established provost position."
"The last dedicated chancellor served until August 2016," Hensel writes in the memo. "Effective September 2016, the UH president assumed the interim UH Mānoa chancellor role while the UH Mānoa chancellor search process, launched earlier in April 2016, continued. However, the search concluded in February 2017 without an appointment. After much evaluation and discussion, effective April 2019, the Board of Regents approved the reorganization to recombine the president and chancellor roles and subsequently approved the establishment of a new provost. This was the beginning of 'hybrid' roles and programs in which select UH System and UH Manoa operations were integrated."
According to UH on Thursday, the BOR voted in December 2025 to reestablish the chancellor position following a recommendation from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems to separate the chancellor and president roles.
UH says the nationwide search attracted 32 applicants and generated nine more nominations and inquiries. Syrmos was selected from a finalist pool that included the provost and vice president for academic affairs at San Francisco State University and the president of National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, the announcement notes.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
