Incoming U of I president more than just scientist
CHAMPAIGN - Much has been said in the past week about the incoming University of Illinois president's extensive scientific background, but Timothy Killeen is also a classical guitarist and art aficionado, and he once played cricket, soccer and rugby in his native Wales.
The rocket scientist with a lengthy resume in higher education talked about some of his other interests in an interview Friday with the Champaign News-Gazette.
The university announced Nov. 19 that Killeen had been chosen to oversee the three University of Illinois campuses and their multibillion-dollar operating budget when President Robert Easter retires in June. A series of appearances that day highlighted his experience in the sciences and past roles that included an assistant directorship at the National Science Foundation.
Killeen told the paper he also spends "quite a bit of time" playing classical guitar, though he considers himself more of a "wannabe" than a proper musician.
Killeen said he's also a sports fan, and admitted to having been a Michigan football supporter going back to his days as a professor there.
"Sorry, but that's where I come from. I'm going to be true orange from now on," said Killeen, who is leaving his job as vice chancellor for research and president of the Research Foundation at the State Universities of New York.
Back onto the topic of science, Killeen, who has a Ph.D. in atomic and molecular physics, said he ended up in rocket science when he couldn't find a job in his area of study.
"I went down the corridor, and I found a position in a group that was building and launching sounding rockets," he said. " ... Within a few months, we were launching sounding rockets, which contained things that I'd built and calibrated, into the Aurora borealis off the northern coast of Norway."
Killeen and his wife visited Illinois this past week and he said he "felt an excitement in the air" on campus.
"It's wonderful to be part of that sense of excitement and optimism," he said.