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Newly appointed UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau speaks with the UC Board of Regents

After a search that lasted nearly one year, UC Berkeley found its next chancellor in Robert J. Birgeneau, an internationally known physicist.

Birgeneau, who is the current president of the University of Toronto, will start his new job in California in October.

His appointment to the position was made formal when University of California President Robert Dynes made the announcement July 27. The UC Board of Regents approved the appointment via teleconference.

‘‘I genuinely believe that the University of California, Berkeley, is simply the very best teaching and research university in the world,’’ Birgeneau said after the news of his hiring was announced.

Birgeneau, 62, was chosen from a group of nearly 300 candidates.

He will replace Robert Berdahl, who held the position of Berkeley chancellor for the past eight years. In September, Berdahl announced his decision to step down from the position and return to teaching.

“Everything Bob Birgeneau has done has prepared him to be chancellor at UC Berkeley,” Dynes said in a statement released from his office.

Birgeneau is not a new face to either Dynes or Berdahl.

Birgeneau worked with Dynes from 1968 to 1975 at AT&T Bell Laboratories.

The two Berkeley chancellors are also connected through Berdahl's daughter and son-in-law, both of whom are faculty members at the University of Toronto.

“He brings a real commitment to equality and inclusion,” said Brad Hayward, a spokesman for the UC office of the president.

Issues of diversity have been one of the major obstacles the university has been facing in recent years after the use of affirmative action was banned in California state and local government entities. Birgeneau acknowledged this issue and voiced his concern about the current state of admissions.

‘‘We will not … meet our social responsibilities as a public institution unless we serve the entire public,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s wrong if we serve only part of the public.’’

Other than Birgeneau’s appointment, the regents also approved the new chancellor’s salary on Tuesday.

Birgeneau’s salary will be the highest in the UC system. He will make $390,000 a year, an increase from his predecessor, whose base salary was $315,000.

This figure was approved by a vote of 11-1 by the board, with one abstention.

Aside from his position at the University of Toronto, Birgeneau spent 25 years on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

His career at MIT began as a professor of physics in 1975, where he later became the head of the department and the dean of the School of Sciences.

With reports from Bruin wire services.

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