Vice Chancellor for Research Paul Alivisatos is pleased to announce the appointment of Eric Siegel as Director of the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, effective April 18, 2016. Eric will succeed Professor Emeritus Paul Licht, who is stepping down on June 30th, after thirteen years of dedicated leadership of the Garden.
Eric was selected by a search committee comprised of Berkeley faculty and Garden advisory board members, following a nationwide search. He comes to Berkeley after a 35-year career in leadership roles in museums and botanical gardens in New York City. He earned his MBA in Arts Administration from SUNY – Binghamton and went on to spend fifteen years in senior positions at two world-class public gardens, the New York Botanical Garden and Wave Hill. For the past eleven years, he has served as Director and Chief Content Officer of the New York Hall of Science, one of the world’s finest science museums. Eric received the 2014 Association of Science – Technology Centers’ Leading Edge Award for Exceptional Leadership, and in 2015 the New York Hall of Science was honored with the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Eric has served on the faculty of NYU, where he has taught graduate courses in museum management and exhibition design.
Eric brings to Berkeley a wealth of experience developing public and educational programming, launching innovative programs, leading strategic planning and facilities expansion projects, and running development campaigns to support the educational and research missions of the museums and gardens where he has worked. Through his close collaboration with horticulturists and research botanists, he is deeply familiar with living collections management and curatorial practices. He has a profound appreciation for the Garden’s remarkable collection and a passionate interest in its future.
We thank Paul Licht for his outstanding stewardship of the Garden for over a decade. The flourishing state of the Garden is testament to his exceptional leadership.
About the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley:
Founded in 1890, the Garden holds one of the world’s largest research collections of plants of documented wild origin. With a view of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay, visitors can enjoy over 11,000 taxa on its 34 acres. These are arranged into nine geographic collections and in several ethnobotanical collections. Cycads, ferns, magnolias and oaks are nationally accredited plant collections of the American Public Gardens Association. The Garden is open every day from 9 am – 5 pm.
