Rate My Professor Christopher Eisgruber

Christopher Ludwig Eisgruber has served as Princeton University’s 20th president since July 2013. He previously served as the university’s provost for nine years beginning in 2004, after joining the Princeton faculty in 2001. As president, he has led efforts to increase the representation of low-income and first-generation students and has been a leading voice for the value of research and liberal arts education. He has emphasized the importance of both free speech and inclusivity to the university’s mission and championed its commitment to service. Eisgruber holds the position of Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Public Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values.

Eisgruber received his A.B. in physics from Princeton University in 1983, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned an M.Litt. in politics from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and a J.D. cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the law review. After clerking for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Patrick Higginbotham and U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, he taught at New York University’s School of Law for 11 years. A renowned constitutional scholar, Eisgruber has published numerous articles on constitutional issues and testified before legislative bodies on religious freedom. His books include Constitutional Self-Government (2001), Religious Freedom and the Constitution (with Lawrence Sager, 2007), The Next Justice: Repairing the Supreme Court Appointments Process (2007), and Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right (2025). He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 2015, and was elected an honorary fellow of University College, Oxford, in 2017. Eisgruber is a recipient of the United States Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and the National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Honor Medal.