Dennis Arp
More than utility, there’s elegance and beauty in the equations that spread across the whiteboard in Daniele Struppa’s office. Though the renowned mathematician has spent a decade in administration as Chapman’s chief academic officer, his ties to teaching and research are as close as the nearest felt-tipped marker.
But although he revels in working through complex calculations, that doesn’t mean Struppa inhabits his own narrow world. Just ask him and he’ll step you through the connections: The meter of a Shakespeare sonnet, the grace of a Renaissance painting, the chords of a classic guitar riff all get their life blood through the artery of math.
“Everything I love,” Struppa says, “is connected with mathematics or mathematical ideas.”
His affection for numbers and for learning began as a child in his native Italy, where his parents – both lawyers – stoked his curiosity and encouraged him to explore. His mom especially coaxed him to see how one discovery leads to another, connecting math to art, geography to history, the classical thinkers to the real world in front of him.
His heroes became people like Piero della Francesca, Alberti and Leonardo – Renaissance figures if there ever were ones. And along a pathway that led him to study in America and build a career in academia, he became fluent in three languages, developed a love for classical music, climbed some of the world’s most challenging peaks, nurtured deep and lasting friendships, all as he also penned publications with names like Computations in the Ring of Quaternionic Polynomials.
“Great teachers need to know so much more than just the subject they teach, so they can see how everything fits into the big fresco,” Struppa says. “Ultimately it comes back to passion. Throughout my life, I’ve never lost my passion for the intellectual enterprise. I really feel emotionally invested in that pursuit. Every time I read a book on a subject I’ve never studied before, I feel new doors opening – I feel like a young kid. So as an intellectual, I’m still 15 years old.”
Now Struppa has brought that scholarly passion to a role for which he has spent a lifetime preparing. On Sept. 30, he was formally installed as the 13th president in the 155-year history of Chapman University, culminating a week of wide-ranging inauguration events and kicking off a weekend of celebration and connection: the Chapman Family Homecoming Celebration.
During the presidential investiture ceremony in Chapman’s Musco Center for the Arts, guests sampled from Struppa’s artistic tastes, enjoying a passage from Dante’s Divine Comedy read by Federico Pacchioni, the Sebastian Paul and Marybelle Musco Chair in Italian, and a selection from Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, sung by mezzo-soprano Erin Theodorakis ’17.
In addition, speakers from all of Chapman’s communities shared warm words of support for a colleague they have come to know simply as Daniele.
“He is the right person at the right time to lead Chapman through the next chapter of our history,” said Joann Leatherby, vice chair of Chapman’s Board of Trustees. “Daniele is a true Renaissance man in the deepest sense.”
When the moment of symbolic torch-passing arrived, Struppa accepted the University Mace from his predecessor and mentor, Jim Doti. Both smiled broadly, reflecting the friendship that unites the pair, as it has throughout their decade of collaboration.
During his 25 years as president, Doti led Chapman through a period of unprecedented growth, taking the school from a small liberal arts college to its current position as a thriving midsized university with an expanding reputation for excellence. As chancellor, Struppa played a key role in that growth. He helped recruit world-class faculty members such as Nobel Prize-winner Vernon Smith and National Medal of Science recipient Yakir Aharonov. And now as he assumes the presidency, Struppa is focused on Chapman’s next leap in its continuing ascent.
“This is a dream job in many ways, but it’s also a huge challenge because I have to follow Jim Doti,” Struppa says. “Working with our board and so many others here, he led us during a time when we took huge strides. Now our challenge is to make another big leap.”
Struppa’s goal is to guide Chapman “to be nationally and internationally regarded as a center of academic and personal excellence,” he says. To do that, he sees Chapman advancing its growing emphasis on research and the sciences as well as adding targeted programs such as engineering. But for Chapman to succeed in a realm “where our competitors are going to be major-league,” the University will need to think bigger and get better across all colleges, schools and departments, he adds.
“We need to continue to hire great faculty, recruit great students and then have everyone push each other to pursue achievement,” Struppa says. “It’s a trajectory toward a level of excellence we touch in some areas but don’t yet in others. We need to be driven by this goal of being the very best at what we do and offering our students something that can’t be replicated.”
Struppa’s passion for excellence is contagious, his colleagues say.
“He’s dynamic and inspiring – has high expectations and challenges you to make a difference,” says Nina Lenoir, vice chancellor for undergraduate education at Chapman. “I’ve never had a sense that he was playing politics; I don’t think he has the patience to do that. His focus is on improving the experience of students, and that’s what I admire, because I try to emulate that.”
For his part, news and documentary film student Leon Dominguez-Lukic ’17 says that taking a class with Struppa is equally inspiring. The honors course he took, called The Quest for Immortality, was “one of the best learning experiences I’ve ever had,” the senior says.
Struppa’s class explored the complexities of cancer from many different angles, and Dominguez-Lukic says his chief takeaway was “I shouldn’t be afraid of math and science.”
“I developed a confidence in something I had feared before,” he says. “I learned that I can’t just be a filmmaker or just a mathematician, or just an anything. His class helped me step outside of any singular focus to get a better fix on the world all around me.”
There’s nothing quite like getting the chance to deepen the understanding of a student, Struppa relates. That’s why he plans to continue teaching during his presidency, just as he did when he was dean of the College Arts and Sciences at George Mason University and as chancellor at Chapman.
“As teachers, every day we experience the marvel of that connection,” Struppa says. “As president, one of my goals is to inspire in all of our faculty to thrive at that point.”
But beyond the chance to inspire the 15 students in a class and the hundreds of professors on the Chapman faculty, he now has the privilege of pursuing a vision that unites the entire Chapman University community in a quest for next-level excellence, he says
And in a way, that pursuit brings Struppa back to his foundation in mathematics. Because as president, it’s as if he gets to go inside one of his own equations.
“I get to be the multiplier,” he says with a smile.
Featured image: The moment of Struppa’s presidential investiture is celebrated by Chapman Board of Trustees President David Janes, left, University President Emeritus Jim Doti, second from right, and Faculty Senate President Gordon Babst, right. – Photo by Nathan Worden ’13 (MBA ’15)
Following are photos from the weeklong series of events celebrating the inauguration of Daniele C. Struppa as Chapman University’s 13th president.
Add comment