The Carnegie Corporation of New York has awarded the 2008 Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award to Robert J. Birgeneau, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and Nancy Cantor, chancellor and president of Syracuse University.

Established in 2005, the award honors leaders of higher education institutions for their commitment to equity, access to an affordable education, curricular innovations, and outstanding liberal arts instruction. Birgeneau, a physicist, and Cantor, a social psychology scholar and advocate for racial justice and diversity in education, were honored for their efforts to increase access to quality higher education for all youth, regardless of socioeconomic status, as well as their curricular innovations, including the development of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary programs that bridge the gulf between the theoretical and practical. Each will receive a $500,000 grant to support their academic priorities.

"With intellectual ferocity, creativity, and sheer will, Robert Birgeneau and Nancy Cantor have created for their students an even deeper, more engaging academic experience aimed not just at sustaining America's world-class system of higher education, but transforming it to equip students for success in a global knowledge economy," said Carnegie Corporation president Vartan Gregorian. "Recognizing that higher education is for many families the gateway to the American dream...Birgeneau and Cantor have each implemented programs in their respective communities to improve college readiness."

For more information about the 2008 Academic Leadership Award winners, visit the Carnegie Corporation Web site.