Becoming a Tar Heel
In announcing Egerstedt as Carolina’s executive vice chancellor and provost, Chancellor Lee H. Roberts noted his “distinguished record of leadership and deep expertise in higher education.”
“He is exceptionally well-suited for this role,” Roberts said. “His scholarship reflects an innovative spirit and a commitment to improving the well-being of others, central tenets in our mission to be the leading public university.”
Egerstedt stated that Carolina’s “excellence, ambition, hunger and strong brand” attracted to him to the role. He also appreciated Carolina’s ability to honor and build on its historic foundation while continuing to innovate and lead.
“The irony isn’t lost on me that a university that allows us to look to the future is the oldest public university in the nation,” Egerstedt said.
Education, professional experience and research
A native of Sweden, Egerstedt received a Bachelor of Science in philosophy from Stockholm University. At the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, he earned a master’s degree in engineering physics and a doctorate in applied mathematics.
In 2000, he began a year-and-a-half stint as a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard University, where he conducted research on robotics and control theory. Following his time there, Egerstedt went to Georgia Institute of Technology, where he spent the next 20 years of his career.
At Georgia Tech, Egerstedt worked his way up from assistant professor to chair of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Along the way, he served as director for Georgia Tech’s Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, advancing his research, which focuses on the control and coordination of large-scale robotic networks, with transformative applications in environmental monitoring, disaster response and sustainable infrastructure.
Watch: Egerstedt has programmed small robots to bounce into place to form letters, including U-N-C.
Egerstedt created the Robotarium at Georgia Tech, a first-of-its-kind remotely accessible swarm robotics laboratory that has empowered over 7,000 users worldwide to conduct real-time experiments with hundreds of autonomous robots.
When he became engineering dean at UC Irvine in 2021, Egerstedt progressed his robotics research, directing the Robot Ecology Lab, an air-ground swarm robotics facility pioneering algorithms for deploying heterogenous robot teams in dynamic natural environments, including wildfire zones and marine ecosystems.
A fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, International Federation of Automatic Control and multiple other professional engineering societies, and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, Egerstedt has garnered numerous accolades, including the Alumni of the Year Award from KTH and prestigious teaching and research honors from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Work and vision for Carolina
In the buildup to his start at Carolina, Egerstedt said, “People should know not only who their provost is, but what a provost does. I am planning to have a real presence on campus.”
Once he arrived in Chapel Hill, Egerstedt put those words into action.
Carolina bucket list
On his first day on the job, Egerstedt made a trip to the Old Well, embracing a beloved Tar Heel tradition.
That was the first item checked off on his Carolina bucket list, which he completed within his first 90 days. The provost also took a photo with Rameses, visited Davie Poplar, made it to the Wilson Library Reading Room, ate at Sutton’s, explored the Carolina Basketball Museum and spent time in the Pit on the last day of classes among other things.
Along the way, Egerstedt embraced every opportunity to document a new Tar Heel experience on LinkedIn, with many across the University community eagerly following his Carolina firsts and spontaneous adventures across campus.
Campus tour
Within his first month on the job, Egerstedt kicked off a campus tour to learn as much as possible about Carolina, make himself visible to the community and collect stories from Tar Heels across campus.
“You only get to be new once, and I’m taking the opportunity to tell our story to the world — to explain why what we do every day in our labs and classrooms matter,” Egerstedt wrote in his inaugural provost column, which is published monthly in The Well, the University’s newsletter.
The tour took Egerstedt to each of Carolina’s 15 schools and the University Library, where he met with students, faculty and staff working on everything from healthcare to broadcast journalism, K-12 education and innovative business solutions.
Egerstedt wrote that his tour taught him the following lessons about Carolina.
- There’s a strong connection between Carolina and its people.
- Across the University, there’s a “relentless focus on impact” and how work done in Chapel Hill can better the state and world.
- There’s a “scrappy, innovative vibe” at the nation’s oldest public university.
- Carolina students are “intellectually nimble, curious and driven,” noting that over 30% of students graduate with multiple majors.
- “Everyone looks good in Carolina Blue!”
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Championing Carolina research
In April 2026, Egerstedt penned a love letter to the public research university, a message in which he explained the important contributions of institutions like Carolina to the public good.
“At a moment when higher education is often questioned, caricatured or dismissed, I trust that the public research university will continue to lead us steadily, imperfectly and courageously forward as remarkable engines of opportunity and innovation,” Egerstedt wrote. “That their mission will remain essential to who we are and who we might yet become, even and especially when challenged.”
In tandem with the letter, Egerstedt led the creation of a mural on campus in Porthole Alley celebrating the University research community’s remarkable achievements, impact and dedication.
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Provost’s priorities: engineering, artificial intelligence and enrollment growth
Egerstedt’s engineering expertise stands to help Carolina as the University explores an expansion of its engineering offerings to fulfill its obligation to serve the state and meet workforce demand.
In considering future plans, Egerstedt said Carolina should bolster engineering specialties where it already excels, such as in health and data sciences.
“I see engineering as an addition, or a complement, to the things we already do well, combining it with health enterprise, data science, environmental science or applied science, like physics and chemistry,” Egerstedt said.
Egerstedt sees artificial intelligence as another area crucial to preparing students for the future workforce. He’s bullish on Carolina championing what he calls “liberal arts engineering” to prepare students to use AI to serve humanity.
“Instead of allowing AI — and technology more broadly — to be something that simply happens to us, liberal arts engineering puts humans in the driver’s seat,” Egerstedt wrote.
As Carolina continues to increase its student body by 5,000 by 2034 to keep up with the state’s population growth, it’s crucial that the University also grows its infrastructure and faculty and staff, with Egerstedt noting, “We can’t just add students without making sure we have the instructors to engage and interact with them.”
He views the “blank canvas” that is Carolina North as a huge opportunity for Carolina to grow effectively in a number of ways, from translational research and industry engagement to community spaces and housing for students, staff and community.
Personal and family life
Outside of work, Egerstedt plays soccer and the drums.
His first week at Carolina, he quickly found a pickup soccer game with Carolina men’s soccer coach Carlos Somoano. And when Egerstedt made it to the Dean E. Smith Center for a men’s basketball game, he made friends with Carolina Band members and checked out the drum set.
Egerstedt is the father of twin daughters, Annika and Olivia, and is married to Danielle Hanson, a poet and professor of the practice in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences’ English and comparative literature department.
