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Dr. C. L. Max Nikias became the University of Southern California's eleventh president on August 3, 2010. He is the holder of the Robert C. Packard President's Chair and the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities. Nikias previously had served as USC's chief academic officer since June 2005, in which role he was charged with accelerating the academic momentum that the university has experienced in recent years.

He was instrumental in bringing the Shoah Foundation to USC. Nikias also established the Edward R. Roybal Institute for Applied Gerontology, the Stevens Institute for Innovation, the U.S.-China Institute, and the Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics. He launched Visions and Voices, USC's campus-wide arts and humanities initiative, as well as a grant program to advance scholarship in the humanities and social sciences. In addition, he enjoys teaching freshmen about ancient Athenian democracy and drama.

Nikias spearheaded the integration of the Keck School of Medicine's faculty practice plans, oversaw the transfer of University Hospital and Norris Cancer Hospital from Tenet Healthcare Corporation to the university, and recruited a new leadership team for USC's medical enterprise. He currently chairs the USC Hospitals Governing Board. Nikias joined the university faculty in 1991 and, from 2001 to 2005, served as dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, solidifying its position as a top-tier engineering school.

He was internationally recognized for his pioneering research on digital signal processing, digital media systems, and biomedicine. And was founding director of two national research centers at USC: the NSF-funded Integrated Media Systems Center and the Department of Defense (DoD)-funded Center for Research on Applied Signal Processing. He served as a senior consultant to a range of corporations and as a high-level consultant to the U.S. government, holding a security clearance for 15 years. The DoD has adopted a number of his innovations and patents in sonar, radar, and communication systems. The author of more than 275 journal articles and conference papers, three textbooks, and eight patents.

Nikias graduated with honors from Famagusta Gymnasium. He received a diploma from the National Technical University of Athens, also known as National Metsovion Polytechnic and later earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Cyprus.

He and his family have lived in the Palos Verdes Peninsula since 1991.