Chemistry played a major role in Arthur Ellis's life from an early age. As a child he could regularly be found experimenting with his chemistry set, but it was his high-school and college teachers that he credits as his true source of inspiration. As a result, Ellis's career has combined a zeal for chemistry with a desire to see the subject promoted and well taught. (See CV)

Following his degree in chemistry, Ellis began his graduate career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, where he set about trying to build better solar panels by optimizing semiconductors and electrolytes. His graduate work earned Ellis the first of nine patents — and the luxury of going straight from graduate training into an assistant professorship at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. There his passion for teaching his subject quickly came to the fore, as he sought ways to bring the latest research to life in the classroom. In one demonstration, for instance, he levitated magnets using liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors. “We can't have a static curriculum when research is so dynamic,” he says.

Ellis's strong feelings about research and education, particularly the state of US chemistry training, finally led him to get involved in science policy. “After many years happily conducting my research and teaching, all the vectors lined up to do something different,” he says. As a result, Ellis became director of the chemistry division at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2002.

Originally due to stay at the NSF for two years, Ellis ended up holding the position for four. While there, he helped to set up a number of initiatives. These included Chemical Bonding Centers, which support long-term projects intended to transform chemistry research; Discovery Corps Fellowships, which support nontraditional postdocs and sabbaticals directed at service-oriented projects; and undergraduate research collaboratives, which enable college students to gain experience in chemical research.

This month, Ellis arrived at the University of California, San Diego, to be its vice-chancellor for research. The university was keen to make use of Ellis's wide-ranging experience, says Marsha Chandler, its senior vice-chancellor for academic affairs. Ellis thinks his NSF experience will help him align his budget with university priorities. “I want to help create conditions that allow innovative ideas to bubble up from the campus and to take the university to the next level of research and education,” he says.