William Frazer

William Frazer was Senior Vice President, Emeritus of the University of California (UC) system and Professor of Physics Emeritus at UC Berkeley. He was a member of the Boards of Trustees of the American University of Armenia, the Aspen Center for Physics, and the Aspen Science Center. From 1981 to 1991, Frazer served as Senior Vice President of the University of California’s nine-campus system. During his tenure, a gift of almost $200 million from the Keck Foundation gave UC, in partnership with Caltech, the opportunity to design, build, and operate the twin ten-meter Keck telescopes atop Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii.

In 1991, the American University of Armenia, located in Yerevan, Armenia, and affiliated with the University of California, was founded. Frazer was the founding chairman of the Board of Trustees and remained a member. From 1960 to 1981, he was a member of the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego, where he conducted research and published extensively on the theory of elementary particles. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He received a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and an A.B. from Carleton College.