John B. Simpson

John Barclay Simpson (born June 8, 1947) is a former president of the University at Buffalo (UB), part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. He assumed this position on January 1, 2004, after leaving his position as executive vice chancellor and provost of the University of California, Santa Cruz. On August 30, 2010, Simpson announced his retirement from the post of UB President effective January 2011.

A research scientist specializing in neuroendocrinology, physiology, and behavior, Simpson was named to the faculty of UB's Department of Physiology and Biophysics. He guided the campus through significant curricular developments, overseeing the creation of new graduate programs in digital arts and new media, bioinformatics, electrical engineering, and politics.

Simpson received his master's and doctoral degrees in neurobiology and behavior from Northwestern University in 1972 and 1973, respectively. He received his bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

In 2007, Simpson also received an honorary doctorate degree from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, in recognition of his commitment to leadership regarding international education partnerships through UB.

Simpson spent two years at the University of Pennsylvania as a research associate of the Institute of Neurological Sciences in the Department of Biology. He has been a visiting professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, and at the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine at the University of Melbourne in Australia where he bred and raised kangaroos.

For 23 years, Simpson was a member of the faculty of psychology at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, serving as director of the university's joint physiology-psychology program for four years from 1984 to 1988, and as head of the physiological psychology area from 1986 to 1990 before his appointment as associate dean for computing, facilities and research in the UW College of Arts and Sciences in 1991. Subsequently, he was appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1994.

Simpson's research is in neuroendocrinology, the study of brain and hormone interaction. He received research support for his laboratory from the National Institutes of Health, and has published widely on the subjects of brain controls of body fluid and cardiovascular regulation, the renin–angiotensin system, and the brain's circumventricular organs.

In 1998, Simpson assumed the post of executive vice chancellor at University of California, Santa Cruz, and served for five years.