William English "Brit" Kirwan (born April 14, 1938) is an American university administrator and mathematician who is chancellor emeritus of the University System of Maryland (USM) and professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Maryland, College Park. Most recently, Kirwan served as chancellor of USM from 2002 to 2015. Previously, Kirwan worked at the University of Maryland, College Park from the 1960s to 1990s as a professor, administrator, and eventually president and was president of the Ohio State University from 1998 to 2002. A native of Kentucky, Kirwan completed three degrees in mathematics, attending the University of Kentucky for his bachelor's degree and Rutgers University for his master's and doctorate degrees. Beginning in 1964, Kirwan was a mathematics professor at Maryland. After over 15 years on the faculty, including four years as head of the mathematics department, Kirwan joined Maryland's administration, beginning as chief academic officer in 1981. Kirwan had two stints as the interim president of the university in 1982 and 1988 before being formally elected by the Board of Regents as president in 1989, a position he would hold before leaving to become president of Ohio State University in 1998. Kirwan returned to Maryland in 2002 to serve as chancellor of the USM before retiring in 2015. Kirwan also chaired the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics from 2007 to 2016. During his presidency, the NCAA implemented a recommendation from the Knight Commission to create financial incentives for member schools to improve student-athlete academic performance. Early life The son of former University of Kentucky football coach and president Albert D. Kirwan, Kirwan was born in Louisville, Kentucky and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. He graduated from Henry Clay High School in Lexington in 1956. After high school, Kirwan enrolled at the University of Kentucky on a football scholarship. He played one year on the freshman football team before leaving the sport to focus on his studies. A member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, Kirwan graduated from Kentucky in 1960 with an A.B. in mathematics. Kirwan later completed two graduate degrees in mathematics at Rutgers University, an M.S. in 1962 and Ph.D. in 1964. His doctoral thesis was Extremal Problems for Certain Classes of Analytic Functions, advised by Malcolm I.S. Robertson. Academic career Early academic career (1963–1981) While completing his Ph.D., Kirwan was an assistant instructor in mathematics at Rutgers University. Kirwan started at the University of Maryland, College