The incoming University of California president, Robert C. Dynes, isn't one for long honeymoons.

The most contentious time during his chancellorship of UC San Diego occurred shortly after he took office, a period when most new university presidents are building bridges.

Instead, Dynes waged an intense campaign to put a charter high school for disadvantaged students on UCSD's La Jolla campus and overrode strong faculty opposition. The project dovetailed with his passion for diversity, and he raised most of the $13 million cost from private sources.

That grit and talent for building consensus will be tested on a much larger stage when he assumes the UC presidency in the fall.

Some consider the 60-year-old Dynes unpolished for the position. But others say he has proven himself well over the past seven years, leading UCSD through rapid growth.

In that time, UCSD's student enrollment has increased 25 percent. Today, with 23,500 students, it is the fifth largest of UC's nine campuses. Interdisciplinary majors and courses have been added, as well as a new pharmacy school, a sixth undergraduate college focused on art, culture and technology, and a graduate management school to open in fall 2005.

On Dynes' watch, an institute for science and innovation was established at UCSD – one of four centers created by Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature. The $102.5 million institute is expected to create jobs and new enterprises while enhancing California's economic position when it opens in fall 2004.

Many say he manages crises well.

For example, he helped resolve a dispute with General Atomics over the direction of the university's supercomputer center, a research unit supported by the National Science Foundation and staffed by nearly 300 computer experts and researchers from every scientific field.

Colleagues give him high marks for addressing the fiscal crisis of UCSD's medical school. Shortly after he became chancellor, a consultant group found the medical enterprise could lose $20 million to $45 million a year.

With the consultants' help, Dynes laid off 500 workers and brought in new school leaders.

"He's done an extraordinarily effective job here," said Joel Dimsdale, chairman of UCSD's faculty senate. "He's the sort of chancellor who believes that God gave us two ears and one mouth and he remembers that. He listens very well."

Dynes was born and raised in Ontario, Canada, the son of a shoe-store owner and a nursery school teacher.

He spent the bulk of his career – 22 years – working at AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he conducted and eventually led chemical physics research.

He arrived at UCSD in 1991 and climbed quickly. Dynes taught four years in the physics department before becoming chairman.

After serving less than a year as the university's top academic administrator, he was appointed by his predecessor, Richard Atkinson, to be chancellor in 1996.

Many describe him as low-key, modest and hard-working. He routinely asks that people "just call me Bob." Until he became vice chancellor, Dynes regularly taught an introductory physics class.

Even now, Dynes estimates that 15 hours out of his 70-hour workweek are spent in his lab, overseeing a half-dozen undergraduate and graduate students. His resumé lists 218 scientific publications, many within the past couple of years, and some co-written with his wife, Frances Dynes Hellman, a UCSD physics professor.

He's also devoted time and energy to helping students. Shortly after arriving on campus, Dynes created a committee of faculty, students and staff that runs workshops to promote and recognize diversity on campus.

"A lot of people would dodge those kinds of issues, but he's a big believer in a university for all citizens," said Tom Bond, a provost at UCSD who has worked at the university for 37 years. "Dynes is not a phony. He's genuinely interested in people."

For years, Dynes has helped stage an annual 5-kilometer race, helping to raise about $200,000 for student scholarships. An avid runner, he runs in the race and often donates thousands of dollars – based on how many students beat him. The money allows 70 to 80 undergraduates to work with a professor and conduct research over the summer.

"He has been a really big money winner," said UCSD senior Stephen Klass, a recipient of one of the undergraduate research scholarships and chairman of the UC Student Association board.

But that's not to say he's without fault.

Many joke that he lacks great public speaking skills. Even yesterday, after being presented to the Board of Regents, he stumbled over his first few words and said, "I am overwhelmed."

"I wish he would take some speech lessons, and I'm not the first person who has said this," said Katja Lindenberg, a UCSD chemistry professor who participated in the search.

Lindenberg and others added, however, that Dynes appears to make up for this by building strong relationships.

Others worry whether Dynes' background is broad enough for the UC system, which includes 200,000 students on nine campuses, five medical schools and three national laboratories.

"He's identified as being a scientist, and the university is about more than science," said Bond, the UCSD provost. "The president would have to promote the arts, humanities, and worry about five medical schools and scandals."

Colleagues are also divided on whether Dynes' ascent will hurt or help UCSD. Lindenberg, a 34-year veteran of the university, observed that the advancement of Dynes' predecessor at UCSD, retiring UC President Atkinson, helped boost the campus's reputation.

Yet others are concerned that Dynes' departure will set the campus back as it searches for a new chancellor, especially during tough budget times. His successor will also inherit a massive $1 billion fund-raising campaign.

Before beginning in his new post Oct. 2, Dynes said he hopes to tie up loose ends at UCSD by helping each of his graduate students complete their dissertations, and find an interim chancellor.

He said he believes his successor should be someone who interacts well with people and believes in shared governance among the administration, faculty and staff.

Dynes said it's too early to comment on front-runners, but names floated among UCSD faculty have been Marsha Chandler, UCSD's senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Charlie Kennel, the head of Scripps Institution of Oceanography.