Christopher Clemens

Christopher Clemens
Clemens at a UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees meeting
Provost of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 2022
Preceded by	Bob Blouin
Personal details
Education	University of Texas at Austin (PhD)

Christopher "Chris" Clemens, Jaroslav Folda Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, is an American astrophysicist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who works on astronomical instrumentation, white dwarf stars, and exoplanetary debris. On 10 December 2021, Clemens was appointed Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost of UNC-Chapel Hill by Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and confirmed by the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees.

Education and Career

Clemens studied astrophysics at the University of Oklahoma and was the 1995 recipient of the Carl Albert Award from the College of Arts and Sciences. He received his PhD in Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994. His dissertation "The Origin and Evolution of the White Dwarf Stars" was selected by the Council of Graduate Schools for the 1995 distinguished dissertation award in math, physical sciences, and engineering. He was awarded a 1993 NASA Hubble Fellowship and conducted research at Iowa State University before joining Caltech as a Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Fellow from 1996-98.

Research and Teaching

Clemens’ research interests include astronomical instrumentation and the study of pulsating white dwarf stars. In the early 2000s, he led the research team that designed and built the Goodman Spectrograph at the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR). He teaches undergraduate astronomy and graduate stellar astrophysics as well as courses in the history of science. As part of UNCs “Difficult Dialogues” initiative, in 2007 he developed a cluster course at the intersection of science and religion called the “Medieval Foundations of Modern Cosmology.” A Roman Catholic, he speaks frequently on the subject of science and religion, including the 2023 Whittington Lecture.

In a 2013 presentation, Clemens described himself as a "Astrophysicist for Jesus" and argued that “science as we know and practice it is a product of a Western Christian culture.”

Work at UNC Chapel Hill

At UNC, Clemens has served as chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Senior Associate Dean of Natural Sciences, Senior Associate Dean of Research and Innovation, founding director of the Institute for Convergent Science and founding director of the Program for Public Discourse.

Youth for Western Civilization Sponsorship

Clemens served as faculty sponsor of UNC-Chapel Hill’s chapter of Youth for Western Civilization, a now defunct far-right white nationalist organization that was known for its opposition to “radical multiculturalism, socialism, and mass immigration.” Clemens claimed that he had not read YWC’s national charter yet still decided to sponsor the group to foster a “diversity of opinion.”

Program for Public Discourse

Clemens helped establish and served as inaugural faculty director of the "controversial" Program for Public Discourse (initially called the Program in Civic Virtue & Civil Discourse), which was the precursor to the conservative School of Civic Life & Leadership. The program has been described as having a "conservative bent" with ties to the Dowd Foundation and other conservative academic centers such as the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, directed by Robert P. George and School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, directed by Paul O. Carrese. The program is held in high regard by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a Project 2025 advisory board member organization.

Tenure as Provost

Clemens was appointed to the position of Provost in December of 2021 in a moved described as "shrouded in secrecy" by WUNC North Carolina Public Radio. In his position as Provost, he has hosted climate change deniers and skeptics, such as the Steamboat Institute. Clemens, along with interim chancellor Lee Roberts, approved the violent arrest of Pro-Palestinian student protests despite push-back from faculty and community. In May of 2024 it was revealed that the university was secretly surveilling professors and their classrooms. As of July 2024, Clemens who has sole discretionary power over the secret recordings of classrooms, has said he will work with faculty to develop a "transparent policy for the use of video cameras in classrooms."