Marye Anne Payne Fox is a physical organic chemist and university administrator. She was the first female chief executive of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. In April 2004, Fox was named Chancellor of the University of California, San Diego. In 2010 Fox received the National Medal of Science. She was born on December 9, 1947 in Canton, Ohio, United States. She received her B.S. from Notre Dame College and her Ph.D. from Dartmouth College, both in chemistry. She held a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Maryland from 1974 to 1976. In the later year, she joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, and in 1994 she became vice president of research there.