Archie received his bachelor’s degree from UT Austin before completing a PhD degree in electrical and computer engineering from UC Santa Barbara in 1997.
In this Graduate Alumni Spotlight Q&A, Dr. Holmes shares how his life has come full circle with his return to Texas.
Q: What does a typical day (if such a thing exists) look like for you in your role as Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the University of Texas System?
Let me start with a little bit about the University of Texas System. Across our 14 institutions, we enrolled over 256,000 and produced over 66,000 graduates last year. This represents more than one-third of the undergraduate degrees in Texas. We have a $4.3 billion research enterprise, which ranks No. 1 in Texas and No. 2 in the U.S. for both total and federal research expenditures. We also educate more than one-half of the state’s health care professionals and award about 60% of the state's medical degrees annually. The combined efforts of our owned and affiliated hospitals and clinics resulted in over 10.8 million outpatient visits and more than 2.1 million hospital days in 2023. In short, this is a big enterprise, like the University of California System. On paper, my job is to provides academic leadership and strategic guidance for the UT System, support the presidents and provosts of the System’s academic institutions as they advance their respective institutional missions, and work collaboratively with the System’s health affairs leadership and other members of
the Chancellor’s executive team to improve education, research, and student success across The University of Texas System and in Texas. In practice, this means a lot of meetings to help understand the challenges our institutions face and work with them to find solutions.
Q: Your life has come full circle with your return to Texas. After growing up in the Austin area and completing your undergraduate degree from UT Austin, what drew you across the country to UCSB for your doctorate?
In the end, it came down to UCSB, Berkeley, and Stanford. For me, the quality of the faculty and the ability to work on compound semiconductor research won out compared to the other institutions. At that time, UCSB had the best program in the world. Another advantage was the fact that many of the faculty had been outside of the academy and brought that perspective to our work. It has really
helped me position my scholarly work to make an impact both within and outside of the Academy.
Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention the beauty of the campus and its
location. The photo on the recruitment brochure sure did help!
Q: What was your research focus at UCSB and are there any professors or colleagues that stand out from your time here?
My main research focus was on how do we build semiconductor lasers that can operate across a wide temperature range without external temperature regulation. The application was many fiber-optic communications at the time. There are too many to name in terms of professors and colleagues/classmates. My PhD committee members (Steve DenBaars, John Bowers, Jim Allen, and Evelyn Hu – now at Harvard) were amazing. I also got a chance to TA for the late Herb Kroemer which was an experience I will always cherish.
Q: How has your engineering background equipped you for the challenges of your current role, which involves a significant administrative focus?
In my view, administrative work involves solving problems, something that those of us with engineering backgrounds are well equipped to do. The problems are different and more complex in many ways. For example, it was “easier” when you know that the laws of Physics apply. While there are some corollaries in administrative work (e.g., budgeting) much involves relationships, influence, and building consensus which I wish had ”laws” that governed them! Thank you for participating as one of our judges for the 2024 Grad Slam Final.
Q: Why are these types of 3-minute thesis competitions so important for our
graduate students?
One of the best lessons I learned while pursuing my PhD was being concise and understanding what is truly important to communicate. My advisor (Steve DenBaars) would ask us, immediately after giving a practice talk, to do it again but now you only have 3-5 minutes (for a planned 20-minute talk). This honed this important skill for me and has served me very well in many situations where I have a lot less time than anticipated to make my case.
Q: How do you see philanthropy impacting the future of higher education, particularly at the graduate level?
Higher Education needs to increase all revenue sources, including philanthropy, to support its mission. A lot of public fanfare is around big gifts; they are and will continue to be important. For philanthropy at the graduate education level, I think a model of “for those who will follow”, focused on individuals and smaller amounts will be more powerful. Especially as they focus on things like
dissertation fellowships, 1-2 year research fellowships, etc.
Q: What motivates you to stay involved with UC Santa Barbara?
UCSB gave so much to me and helped me hone my talents, skills, and aspirations to get me to where I am in my career. To the extent that I can help others benefit from my experience, I am happy to share.