About Chancellor Kang
Sung-Mo “Steve” Kang became the second chancellor of the University of California, Merced, on March 1, 2007.
Having served most recently as dean of the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz, Kang is an experienced educator, researcher and administrator with valuable insights from one of the UC system’s newer campuses. In his six years as dean of engineering, he took a nascent program to significantly higher levels of achievement during its second phase of development.
Born and raised in South Korea, Kang earned a scholarship to a university in the United States and became the first in his family to attend college.
Kang earned his bachelor of science degree, graduating summa cum laude, from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J.; his master of science from the State University of New York at Buffalo; and his doctorate from UC Berkeley. All his academic degrees are in electrical engineering.
Kang and his wife, Mia, have two grown children.