Henry S. Bienen was elected the 15th president of Northwestern University on June 13, 1994. He took office on January 1, 1995. 

Professor Bienen was the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University prior to his appointment at Northwestern.

A political scientist with interests in political and economic development, comparative politics, civil-military relations, and U.S. foreign policy, Professor Bienen began his association with Princeton University in 1966 as an assistant professor. He was named associate professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton in 1969 and professor of politics and international affairs in 1972. He was appointed the William Stewart Tod Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton in 1981 and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in 1985. 

Professor Bienen is one of the first three university presidents awarded the Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award for innovative leadership in higher education. The honor carries a $500,000 award for the institution and recognizes leaders of institutions of higher education who have demonstrated an abiding commitment to liberal arts and who have initiated and supported curricular innovations, including development of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary programs that aim to bridge the gulf between the theoretical and the practical. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Professor Bienen is a member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, serving on the executive committee and chairing the nominating and governance committee. He is a member of the board of directors of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and serves on its executive committee. A member of the Argonne National Laboratory's Board of Governors, Professor Bienen serves on the board's executive and nominating committees.

Other board and trustee memberships include JSTOR, Rasmussen College and Steppenwolf Theatre. Professor Bienen is past chair of the executive committee of the Association of American Universities and a member of the American Political Science Association and the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. 

Professor Bienen has been a visiting professor at Makerere College in Kampala, Uganda (1963–65), at University College in Nairobi (1968–69), at Columbia University (1971–72), and at the University of Ibadan (1972–73). He was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (1976–77), a Polsky Fellow at the Aspen Institute (1982–83), and a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton (1984–85).

Professor Bienen has been a consultant to the U.S. Department of State (1972–88), the National Security Council (1978–79), the Agency for International Development (1980–81), the Central Intelligence Agency (1982–88), and the World Bank (1981–89). He served as a member of the senior review panel of the CIA in the late 1980s. He also has been a consultant to Hambrecht and Quist Investment Company, the Boeing Corporation, and the Carnegie Corporation as well as to the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

He served as a member of the Committee on Roles of Academic Health Centers in the 21st Century at the National Academies' Institute of Medicine and on the board of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (Internet 2) from 1998 to 2002. 

Professor Bienen received a bachelor's degree with honors from Cornell University in 1960 and a master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1961. He was awarded a PhD from Chicago in 1966. In 2000 he received the University of Chicago Professional Achievement Alumni Award.