NORTHAMPTON — Williams College is on the hunt for a new president, and it will be a Northampton High School graduate who takes the reins as interim president during that search.
The college in Williamstown announced Tuesday that while the board of trustees looks for a full-time president, Tiku Majumder will step into the position. Majumder graduated from Northampton High School in 1978, then attended Yale and Harvard before landing at Williams College, where he is a professor of natural philosophy and the director of the college’s science center.
“I’m definitely excited,” Majumder told the Gazette on Tuesday. “I’ve been at the college for 23 years now and so I’ve had a chance to see a lot here.”
Majumder’s family moved to Northampton in 1967, and his parents were both teachers there. Flora, his mother, was an elementary school music teacher primarily at Jackson Street School. His father, Sanat, who died last October, was a botanist who taught at both Smith College and Westfield State College, and as a college student in India attended Mahatma Gandhi’s prayer meetings.
Majumder will be taking over Jan. 1 for President Adam Falk, who is stepping down in December to become president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Majumder said his current plan is to stay in the position until a permanent president is named, likely next summer, though he said he wouldn’t mind being considered for the post himself.
“I thought this would be a way to get a little experience doing something like this in a way that’s a temporary gig,” Majumder said.
Majumder said growing up in Northampton with educators as parents prepared him for the challenges of working in academia.
“I think back very fondly to my high school experience,” he said. “Growing up in a town where education was really valued was certainly important.”
Flora, Majumder’s mother, said she was anxiously waiting to reveal the news, but had to wait until Tuesday’s announcement.
“I was really thrilled,” she said from California. “I’m just so proud of him, and thinking what my husband would have felt.”
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.