What Peter Meinig called 'truly an auspicious day for Cornell,' interim President Hunter R. Rawlings called 'a very sad day in Iowa City, Iowa.' The day was Saturday, and the man Rawlings was referring to was Cornell's newly named 12th president, David Skorton.
'I'm so proud and very, very humbled to have the chance to be a part of the leadership of this great jewel of international higher education,' said David J. Skorton, Cornell's newly named 12th president.
In an easy, unassuming way, though, University of Iowa President David Skorton was quickly slipping into his role as an integral part of Cornell. Cornell's 12th president began his first day on campus Jan. 21.
The six-month search for Cornell University's 12th president has ended with the announcement that David J. Skorton, president of the University of Iowa.
His love of jazz adds a soulful dimension to David J. Skorton, Cornell's newly named president, who has achieved national recognition as a supporter of the humanities and arts.
One part of David Skorton's career echoes a recent major theme in Cornell scholarship: the application of computer technology and computer science ideas in other disciplines.
As an associate professor of anatomy and cell biology, and radiation oncology, at the University of Iowa's College of Medicine, Robin Davisson, Cornell's next first lady, focuses her research on the basic mechanisms of function, control and signaling in the cardiovascular system.
Both Hunter Rawlings and David Skorton hail from the University of Iowa - known as the Hawkeyes in the athletic arena. And yet the transition from the Big Ten to the Ivy League is one between two institutions that on many accounts are surprisingly similar.
The formation of a search committee for Cornell University's 12th president began less than a month after President Jeffrey S. Lehman's sudden resignation on June 11, 2005.
Cornell's College of Architecture, Art and Planning will be getting a new building that will be a contemporary architectural gem -- designed by the firm of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas.