Alfred Bloom

Who is Alfred Bloom?

Alfred H. Bloom is an American psychologist and linguist and vice chancellor of New York University Abu Dhabi.

Bloom joined NYU Abu Dhabi from Swarthmore College, where he completed an 18-year tenure as president in 2009. Under Bloom, Swarthmore assumed a position of broadly recognized leadership in American liberal arts education. During Bloom’s tenure, the College revitalized its academically rigorous Honors Program, undertook extensive renovation and creation of academic buildings, broadened its multicultural curriculum, expanded foreign study, and established the Eugene M. Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.

During the Bloom presidency, the College dramatically increased its diversity, with the proportion of students of color in the entering class rising from 16 percent to 39 percent. The College also achieved a significant increase in admissions applications and selectivity, most recently with more than 6,200 applications of extraordinary quality for approximately 375 places in the Class of 2012. Swarthmore's endowment grew from $400 million in 1991 to $1.4 billion in 2009. In addition, the College raised more than $362 million in gifts during that period.