Penn provost new Johns Hopkins leader

Ronald Daniels (above) will take office March 2, succeeding William Brody.

WASHINGTON - Ronald Daniels, the provost of the University of Pennsylvania, will become the 14th president of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the school's trustees decided.

Daniels was chosen in a special meeting of the Board of Trustees after an international search involving nearly 300 nominees.

"Ron is a strategic thinker, known for articulating and implementing bold and visionary academic ideas and initiatives," said Pamela Flaherty, chairman of both the board of trustees and the search committee.

"He impressed the committee with his passion for the academic enterprise, his record of academic entrepreneurship, and his commitment to building excellence in both the basic sciences and multidisciplinary research centers and institutes," she said.

Daniels will take office March 2, succeeding William Brody, who is stepping down after nearly 12 years heading Johns Hopkins. The school is the largest research-intensive university in the country and under Brody was a highly successful fund-raiser.

In a statement, Daniels said that he took the job because of the university's "extraordinary academic reputation, its commitment to research excellence and the leadership role it plays in so many domains of scientific and social inquiry."

Daniels has been provost and chief academic officer at Penn since 2005. .

Brody had the fifth-longest tenure among Johns Hopkins's 13 presidents. His retirement will coincide with the conclusion of the $3.2 billion Johns Hopkins capital campaign.

WASHINGTON POST