'In demand' Mung Chiang leaving Purdue for Northwestern

Announcement comes less than a year after Purdue trustees gave Chiang a raise and extended contract, knowing he was ‘in high demand.’ He starts in Evanston July 1.

Mung Chiang, the day in June 2022 when he was named the next Purdue president. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

Less than a year after Purdue trustees restructured Mung Chiang’s contract because they knew he was “in high demand,” Chiang announced Monday that he was leaving West Lafayette for Northwestern University.

Chiang starts as the 18^th president of the private Big Ten rival in Evanston, Illinois, on July 1, according to a release Monday morning from both universities.

Gary Lehman, chairman of the Purdue Board of Trustees, said in a statement that an interim president would be named “in the coming weeks,” with a search starting shortly after that for someone to fill the position.

Chiang, who had been Purdue engineering dean and senior vice president for strategic initiatives, was named the university’s next president in June 2022, waiting a semester to replace outgoing President Mitch Daniels as Purdue’s 13th president in January 2023.

Chiang declined to comment Monday beyond statements released by trustees and a letter he sent to the campus community.

In a letter sent late Monday morning to students and staff, Chiang said it “was a particularly emotional moment” as he was handing out diplomas in three days of commencement ceremonies that saw the largest class in Purdue’s history walk the Elliott Hall of Music stage.

“I believe that, with the university’s momentum and stability both in excellent shape today and coinciding with the timeline of my family’s next chapter, this summer will be the right time to pass the baton to the next leader of our remarkable university,” Chiang wrote.

“Throughout the past nine years and in several capacities, it has been an incredible honor and joy for me to work with the amazing board, colleagues, students and alumni,” Chiang wrote. “There truly is something special at Purdue: not just the projects and programs, but the people. When I look back at the past four years along with the seniors, we again appreciate how blessed we are to be part of the Boilermaker team that worked each day to make Purdue the most sturdy and strategic institution of higher education in the country today. Thanks to you, Purdue is on a clear institutional trajectory upward and forward, beyond any single individual’s presence, with an even brighter future.”

Dr. YingKei Hui, Chiang’s wife, also will take a position of internal medicine physician at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Chiang will replace Northwestern’s interim president Henry Bienen, who stepped in after the fall 2025 resignation of Michael Schill. Schill left the university after three years, including pressure from federal officials over the university’s handling of Gaza protests and the eventual loss of federal research money that led to campus layoffs.

In a letter to the Northwestern community posted Monday, Chiang called for “a new chapter in the long chronicle of Northwestern University … Now is again the time to ‘take a Northwestern direction’ and look to our future.”

Chiang leaves Purdue after three years at a time of record enrollment, the ramp-up of the university’s Daniels School of Business, the launch of Purdue’s Indianapolis campus after the breakup of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in 2024, a record $1 billion in research spending and a press into research-driven industry partnerships with companies along what he dubbed a “high-tech corridor” connecting West Lafayette and Purdue. That included helping to land the $3.87 billion SK hynix semiconductor facility at the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, at the time the largest economic development deal in state history.

He leaves in the midst of a five-year “Victories and Heroes” campaign announced in 2025 and looking to raise $4 billion for the university. Purdue’s Day of Giving in April, one where Chiang took a traditional jog through campus with students, raised $95.5 million from 34,454 donations over 24 hours.

Chiang also exits weeks after the faculty-led University Senate gave a vote of no-confidence for Provost Patrick Wolfe, the top academic officer at Purdue. Many of the allegations lodged against Wolfe – including suspicions that unwritten policies are blocking some international graduate students, unclear tenure decisions and allegedly fostering “a climate of self-censorship” on campus – were ones that trickled to the top at Hovde Hall. At the time, Chiang had deemed the vote and process as “misinformed.”

Gary Lehman, Purdue Board of Trustees chairman, issued a statement with Monday’s announcement: “We are ever grateful for Mung’s leadership as Purdue continues to impact lives with outstanding teaching, research and engagement. We will miss Mung and Kei and their positive influence on our campus and community. We wish them all the best as they move forward to the next steps in their careers.”

Lehman declined to comment beyond that Monday.

But trustees publicly had praised Chiang at every turn.

In October 2025, trustees added two years to Chiang’s salary, giving him a 30% raise and more than doubling his annual retention bonuses, hoping to keep him in West Lafayette. He has a $600,000 base salary, with another $300,000 in salary based on performance on a series of metrics and goals laid out for him and the university each year. He also is in line for a $500,000 retention bonus if he is president as the June 30 end of the university’s fiscal year.

At the time, Lehman said: “The success the university has had has given him great marketable status with other ones. … We don’t want to lose him.”

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