Vartan Gregorian (Armenian: ?????? ?????????; Persian: ?????? ?????????, born April 8, 1934) is an American academic, serving as the president of Carnegie Corporation of New York.Gregorian came to the United States in 1956 as a freshman, attending Stanford University, where he completed his B.A., with honors, in two years.
After receiving his dual doctorates in history and humanities from Stanford in 1964, Gregorian served on the faculties of several American universities.
He taught European and Middle Eastern history at San Francisco State College, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Texas at Austin.
In 1972 he joined the University of Pennsylvania faculty and was appointed Tarzian Professor of History and professor of South Asian history.
He was founding dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania in 1974 and four years later became its twenty-third provost until 1981.
From 1981 to 1989, Gregorian served as president of The New York Public Library, a post he would hold for eight years.
In 1988, he was chosen to become president of Brown University, where he served for the next nine years.
In 1997, he was appointed president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, the philanthropic foundation created in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie.
He currently serves as a trustee of the Aga Khan Museum, the Library of Alexandria, The Hunter Foundation, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, The American Academy in Berlin, and the Patti and Everett B.
Biurch Foundation.
In 1986, Gregorian was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and in 1989 the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts.
In 1998, President Clinton awarded him the National Humanities Medal.
In 2004, President George W.
Bush awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civil award.
In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed him to serve on the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.
In addition, Gregorian has received the Council on Foundations Distinguished Service Award, 2013; the Aspen Institute's Henry Crown Leadership Award, 2010; the Africa-America Institute Award for Leadership in Higher Education Philanthropy, 2009; and has been honored by various other cultural and professional associations, including the Armenian Cultural Foundation, the Urban League, the League of Women Voters, the Players Club, PEN-American Center, Literacy Volunteers of New York, the American Institute of Architects, the Charles A.
Dana Foundation, and the Elysium Between Two Continents.
He has been honored by the city and state of New York, the states of Massachusetts, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, and the cities of Fresno, Austin, Providence and San Francisco and was named a Living Landmark of the City of New York, where he currently resides.
In March 2015, Vartan Gregorian, together with two other philanthropists of Armenian descent, Noubar Afeyan and Ruben Vardanyan, launched a new humanitarian effort called 100 Lives.
The initiative is rooted in next year's centennial of the Armenian Genocide, in which 1.5 million people died at the hands of the Ottoman government between 1915–1923, and one project will be to uncover stories of survivors and people who saved lives during that period.