Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson is highest-paid university president in the nation

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, is listed as the highest-paid university president, public or private, in the nation, according to an annual survey conducted by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Dr. Jackson, who became the 18th president of the private Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in July of 1999, received $891,400 in salary and benefits in the last fiscal year, in addition to more than a half-million dollars for serving on corporate boards, reports the New York Times.

The first Black woman to receive a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), Dr. Jackson has a Ph.D. in theoretical elementary particle physics and an S.B. in physics from the Cambridge school.

Prior to her current post, Dr. Jackson served as Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as a theoretical physicist at the former AT&T Bell Laboratories and as a professor of theoretical physics at Rutgers University.

As Rensselaer's president Dr. Jackson has made many accomplishments that include having raised more than a half-billion dollars for the institute, increasing school funding and hiring 127 new faculty members.