Daniel Berg was appointed president on March 2, 1985. Educated as a physicist and chemist, Berg was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and chemistry from the City College of New York (1950), as well as master’s and doctoral degrees in physical chemistry from Yale (1951 and 1953).

Widely recognized for his work in the management of technology and innovation, Dr. Berg spent 24 years (1953-1977) with the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Pittsburgh, where he was promoted through various managerial levels, ultimately to technical director of the corporation. Berg left Westinghouse in 1977 to join Carnegie Mellon University where he was dean of the Mellon College of Science and later provost. At CMU Berg helped found the Robotics Institute.
In 1983, Berg was appointed Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost of Rensselaer and in 1984 was named Acting President. After Berg’s presidency he became Professor of Science and Technology in 1987. In 2007, he received the Engineering Management Educator of the Year award from the IEEE Engineering Management Society.
The author of more than 75 technical/management articles and books, Dr. Berg was active as a board member and technical adviser to many universities, federal agencies and industrial organizations. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, he was elected to a three-year term as councillor on the governing board. He also served on a newly formed national study panel on technology transfer and national security, through the National Academy of Engineering. President Berg is a fellow and past president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.