Daniele C. Struppa, Ph.D. was inaugurated as Chapman University’s 13th president on
September 1, 2016, and served in that role until September 1, 2025. He is now President
Emeritus and the Parker Kennedy Chair in Mathematics, and previously served as the
Donald Bren Presidential Chair in Mathematics.
Since joining Chapman as Provost in 2006, Struppa has been instrumental in guiding
the university’s transformation from a regional teaching institution to an internationally
recognized R2 research university, a distinction achieved by only 10% of U.S. universities.
In 2007, he became Chapman’s first chancellor before being appointed president.
Building on the strategic leadership of President Emeritus Jim Doti, Struppa successfully
recruited dozens of nationally and internationally prominent scholars and oversaw
the creation of new institutes, laboratories, and advanced research infrastructure,
including the Keck Center for Science and Engineering—the largest building project
in Chapman’s history.
During his tenure, Chapman also expanded its student body and launched several new
schools and colleges, including Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, the
School of Pharmacy, Schmid College of Science and Technology, the Dale E. and Sarah
Ann Fowler School of Engineering, the College of Performing Arts, and the School of
Communication.
Chapman’s progress under Struppa received national recognition. In 2019, U.S. News
& World Report ranked Chapman among the nation’s top institutions for the first time.
The university’s financial foundation also strengthened, with its endowment and net
assets more than doubling during his presidency.
Prior to his tenure at Chapman, Struppa served as Director of the Center for the Applications
of Mathematics, Chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences, and as Associate
Dean for graduate studies at George Mason University. In 1997, he was selected Dean
of George Mason’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Prior to his tenure at George Mason, Struppa held positions at the University of Milano
(Milan, Italy), the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, Italy), and the University of
Calabria (Calabria, Italy).
Struppa earned his laurea in mathematics from the University of Milan, Italy in 1977,
and received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Maryland, College
Park in 1981. In recognition of his work, he has been awarded the Bartolozzi Prize
from the Italian Mathematical Union (1981) and the Matsumae Medal from the Matsumae
International Foundation of Tokyo (1987). Additionally, Struppa received the prestigious
Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences for a paper he co-authored
(2017).
Struppa is the author of more than 200 refereed publications, and he is the editor
of several volumes. He has edited or co-authored more than 10 books, including “Bicomplex
Holomorphic Functions,” “Regular Functions of a Quaternionic Variable,” and “Noncommutative
Functional Calculus: Theory and Applications of Slice Hyperholomorphic Functions.”
During his spare time, Struppa has traveled around the world climbing some of the
world’s tallest mountains, including the European Alps, the Caucasus Mountains between
Asia and Europe, and the Andes in South America, where he proposed to his wife Lisa
Sparks on Cotopaxi, an active volcano. Sparks was the founding Dean of the School
of Communication and is the Foster and Mary McGaw Endowed Professor at Chapman. Struppa
and Sparks have four children: Elena, Ariana, Athena and Alex.
Research and Publications
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