2011 | Joseph E. Aoun

Joseph E. Aoun (PhD ’82, Linguistics) is a distinguished scholar in linguistics, and the seventh president of Northeastern University. Prior to taking on the presidency at Northeastern, Aoun was Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences at the University of Southern California. He joined USC in 1982 in the Department of Linguistics, and during his time at USC served as head of the academic Senate. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Aoun was awarded the Masters Oriental Languages and Literature, Saint Joseph University, Beirut; Diploma of Advanced Study General and Theoretical Linguistics, University of Paris VIII; and a Ph.D.in Linguistics, from MIT. In 2006, the French government presented him with the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a recipient of the USC Associates Award for Creativity in Research and Scholarship, and a fellow of the Linguistic Society of America.