Essential Estrogen

KWWL is reporting that the Iowa Board of Regents will be naming Purdue University Provost Sally Mason the next University of Iowa president tomorrow during their meeting in Iowa City.

If true, Mason will succeed David Skorton, who left the university to become president at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. She would also become only the second woman to serve in this post. (Mary Sue Coleman was the university's first woman president. She held the office directly before Skorton and served from 1995 to 2002.)

University Relations has reported the Regents are expected to make their decision at 3 p.m. Following the meeting, the new president will be introduced to the community in Iowa Memorial Union's Richey Ballroom. This event is open to the public and will be broadcast by UITV on its Iowa City and Cedar Rapids cable stations. There will also be a live video stream provided at mms://winmedia.uiowa.edu/events once the event begins.

As Purdue's provost, Mason has been responsible for all of the academic school and programs on the West Lafayette Campus and academic program oversight for each of the regional campuses. In addition, her office is responsible for the coordination of activities in the offices of student services, continuing education and conferences, international programs and the graduate school. The provost plays a coordinating role with the offices of information technology and space management for academic scheduling.

Mason is known nationally as a leading spokesperson for American higher education. In addition to serving as provost, she is a distinguished researcher and teacher, specializing in developmental biology and cell biology.

She received her bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of Kentucky in 1972, a master's degree from Purdue in 1974, and a PhD in cellular, molecular and developmental biology from the University of Arizona in 1978. After two years of postdoctoral research at Indiana University in Bloomington, she joined the University of Kansas in 1981. During her span of 21 years at the University of Kansas, Mason served as a full professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences, acting as chair of the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and finally, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Mason came to Purdue as provost and professor of biology in 2001. She has received a number of teaching awards, including a Mortarboard Outstanding Educator award, and Outstanding Academic Advisor award, and a prestigious Kemper Teaching Fellowship. In February 2006 she was appointed a member of the President's Committee on the National Medal of Science.

She is the author of numerous scientific papers and has obtained a number of research grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Wesley Research Foundation. She has served as principal investigator for several large statewide NSF grants in Kansas and grants from the Lilly Endowment in Indiana.

Her national and international affiliations include serving as president of the Pan American Society for Pigment Cell Research, president of the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, member of the advisory committee to the NSF Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), member of the NSF Advisory Committee for GPRA Performance Assessment, member and 2006 chair of the executive board of the NASULGC Chief Academic Officers Group, member of the 2007 NASULGC board of directors, member of the Council on Academic Affairs, and chair of the board of Inproteo, a start-up company collaboration between Eli Lilly, Inc., Indiana University, and Purdue University.