Alice P. Gast had accomplished much before August 2006, when she was appointed Lehigh’s 13th president. Gast had been a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University and vice president for research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

During Gast’s seven and one-half years at Lehigh, the university began an ambitious campus planning process to create new collaborative spaces; raised a total of $725 million; created the Council for Equity and Community (CEC) to address diversity issues on campus; and expanded its work with South Bethlehem through the South Side Initiative and a community school partnership.

Gast’s tenure also saw the establishment of the Iacocca International Internships for Global Leaders, the addition of the 750-acre Stabler Campus, the construction of the LEED-certified STEPS building, and the launch of Lehigh’s innovative Mountaintop initiative.

Gast left Lehigh in July 2014 to become the first female president of Imperial College London.