Thomas F. George served as chancellor and professor of chemistry and physics at the University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL) from 2003 until his retirement in 2019. As the university's longest serving chancellor, he oversaw the academic and administrative operations of a university with 17,000 students, 2,500 faculty and staff, 40 academic buildings and a $200 million annual operating budget. In addition, $150 million of new capital construction, renovation and landscaping on campus took place during 2015-17. The annual amount of philanthropic contributions during his tenure as chancellor quadrupled to over $28 million, reaching as high as $31 million in 2014.