Cornell Names University of Iowa Cardiologist Next President

Cornell University named a cardiologist, David J. Skorton, as the school’s next president on Saturday, concluding a search touched off by the abrupt resignation of Jeffrey Lehman in June.

Skorton will head east from the University of Iowa, where he has been president since 2003. He assumes the presidency of Cornell on July 1.

Lehman surprised the university when he stepped down last year, citing differences with Cornell’s trustees but declining to explain further. Skorton dismissed those issues at a press conference in Ithaca, N.Y. on Saturday.

“Show me a university where there aren’t difficult situations to deal with, and I’ll tell you that you aren’t looking hard enough,” Skorton said.

The chair of Cornell’s board of trustees, Peter Meinig, said that Skorton had been unanimously approved by the 64-member board. Hunter R. Rawlings III, the interim president of Cornell, will continue to lead the university until Skorton takes office.

Skorton, a white male, emerged from a slate of three finalists that included one women, the chair of the presidential search committee, Diana Daniels, said on Saturday. Cornell has never had a female or minority president.

Skorton will be the second Cornell president plucked from Iowa’s top post. Rawlings also left Iowa in 1995.

—ZACHARY M. SEWARD