Berdahl was a history professor at the UO from 1967 to 1986 and served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1981 to 1986.

He then spent seven years as vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, four years as president of the University of Texas and as chancellor at the University of California-Berkeley, 1997 to 2004.

In 2006, Berdahl became president of the Association of American Universities (AAU). The AAU is an association of 61 leading public and private research universities in the United States and Canada.

The AAU worked closely under Berdahl with the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the departments of Energy, Defense and Education. It also worked with Congress to prompt a review of the nation's research universities by the National Academy of Sciences.

After retiring from the AAU in 2011, Berdahl served during 2012 as interim president of the University of Oregon

Berdahl received his B.A. from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, his M.A. from the University of Illinois, and his Ph.D from the University of Minnesota, which also awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Science in 1997. In 2010, New York University awarded him an honorary Doctorate, and he has received an honorary doctorate and distinguished alumnus award from Augustana College, a Fulbright Research Fellowship, and an NEH Independent Study and Research Fellowship. He has been a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and at the Max Planck Institute for History in Goettingen, Germany. Berdahl was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001. He is the author of one book and the co-author of another, and has written numerous articles dealing with German history.

Berdahl was born in 1937 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He and his wife Margaret (Peg) have three married daughters, Daphne (deceased), Jennifer, and Barbara, and six grandchildren

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