[4] He is currently a tenured professor in electrical engineering with a secondary appointment in classics, and the director of the USC Institute for Technology Enabled Higher Education.

[12] The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights' independent investigation concluded with a report published in February 2020 and did not implicate Nikias or his predecessor in any specific wrongdoing.

[13] Nikias served on the board of directors of Synopsys, Inc., (NASDAQ: SNPS), an S&P 500 semiconductor chips company from 2011–2023, where he chaired its compensation committee.

[16] He lectures and moderates panels on the geopolitical storms surrounding semiconductor chips and their supply chain,[17][18] as well as on cybersecuring democratic elections.

[19] He also lectures on the promises of economic growth and ethical dilemmas of artificial intelligence (AI),[20][21] and on Xenophon's Cyropaedia: The Art and Adventure of Leadership.

[24] He received a degree in electrical and mechanical engineering from the National Technical University of Athens in 1977, and has an academic interest in Athenian drama and democracy.

While his research work ranged from signal processing and biomedical engineering to digital communications and military radar and sonar, he is best known for his understanding of multimedia's defining place in the future of the internet and the IMSC.

"[40] During Nikias' tenure, USC consistently ranked among the top five universities, along with Stanford and Harvard, in cash charitable donations.

The most prominent project, though, is the USC Village, a 1.3 million square-foot center of student residential colleges, that opened in 2017, entirely reimagining the university's landscape.

[43] In recognition of his efforts to renew USC's athletic heritage, The New York Times selected Nikias as one of a small number of national figures "who make sports' little corner of the world a better place.

Nikias introduced a number of strategic initiatives, and was focused on faculty recruitment and the expansion of the medical enterprise; broadening USC's international presence; improving the diversity and quality of the student body; improving the university's infrastructure, including the development of the USC Village; and bringing to closure the university's fundraising campaign.

[45] According to the Los Angeles Times, Nikias played "a central role in university's meteoric rise in academic stature.

"[50][51] There were concerns over how the university dealt with sexual misconduct allegations against a longtime student health center gynecologist George Tyndall.

[53][54] In a letter to USC's board of trustees, a group of faculty members wrote that they had come together to "express our outrage and disappointment over the mounting evidence of President Nikias' failure to protect our students, our staff, and our colleagues from repeated and pervasive sexual harassment and misconduct.

[57] After Nikias stepped down in August 2018, Rick Caruso, chair of the USC board of trustees, said: "As he has always done, Max is taking this action in what he believes to be in the best interest of the university following controversies that have arisen from the unfortunate and unacceptable acts of others.

[58] The report stated that " Furthermore, in interviews with OCR, senior University administrators, including President 2 and the Provost, professed to have had little to no knowledge of Employee 1’s matter, other than what the Office of General Counsel told them, and they were consistent in their statements to OCR that they were told by the Office of General Counsel that Employee 1’s conduct involved harassing words and outdated medical practices, with no mention of the possibility of physical misconduct.

The evidence showed that since at least 2000, the University had notice of possible sexual harassment by Employee 1 of patients and systemically failed at multiple points in time and at multiple levels of responsibility to respond promptly and effectively to notice of the alleged sexual harassment; and that its failure may have allowed female students to be subjected to continuing sex discrimination.

"[61] Nikias subsequently became President Emeritus and a Life Trustee of the university, as well as director of the USC Institute for Technology Enabled Higher Education.