IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The University of Iowa’s newly selected president is Sally Mason, a biology professor and provost at Purdue University.

Mason, who becomes the school’s 20th president, replaces David Skorton, who left last summer to become president of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. She will assume her new post on Aug. 1.

“I already feel that I am part of this University of Iowa community,” the 57-year-old Mason said during a news conference Thursday afternoon in Iowa City where the state Board of Regents announced her selection. She said the university is “one of the world’s great universities,” and is beginning a new page in its already great history.

“If we dream together and work together, we will succeed together,” she said.

Mason noted she has a steep learning curve but is not afraid of the challenge.

“I’m not afraid of heights, and having spent my entire career in higher education, I do know how to learn,” she said.

Mason has more than a decade of experience in university administration, including serving as the University of Kansas’ dean of the college of liberal arts and sciences beginning in 1995, then as the first woman provost at Purdue beginning in 2001.

She was awarded a Ph.D. in cellular, molecular and developmental biology from the University of Arizona in 1978. Before that, she received her master’s degree from Purdue University in 1974, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Kentucky two years earlier.

Mason spent 21 years at the University of Kansas where she served as a full professor of molecular biosciences, acting chair of the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, associate dean and then dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

She returned to Purdue in 2001 where she served as a professor of biology in addition to her duties as provost – the school’s top academic post in charge of curriculum, fundraising and faculty recruitment and retention.

Michael Gartner, president of the board of regents, said Mason has the qualities needed at the university.

“She has a passion for education, she has a passion for leadership,” he said.

Gov. Chet Culver also was on hand to congratulate Mason.

“I believe we now have a fantastic president, whom everyone can be proud of,” he said.

Mason has successfully obtained research grants from organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Wesley Research Foundation, according to the University of Iowa’s Web site.

She belongs to many professional and academic organizations around the world, including serving as president of the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Advisory Committee to the National Science Foundation Directorate for Education and Human Resources, president of the Pan American Society for Pigment Cell Research, and chair of the board of Inproteo, a start-up company collaboration between Eli Lilly and Co., Indiana University and Purdue University, the Web site said.

“The first thing you notice about her is her intelligence. You also notice that she’s very personable, and she thinks very well on her feet,” said Robert Weaver, the associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas. He worked with Mason for more than 15 years in the school’s biological sciences division.

Mason was called a “great facilitator” by Dennis Savaiano, the dean of consumer and family sciences at Purdue University. He said she “can be given a lot of credit” for many of the university’s accomplishments over the past few years, including hiring success in hiring faculty, increasing student diversity, growing research programs and increasing external funding.

“And she’s done that because she’s hired and mentored really fine people and given them the support and encouragement they’ve needed,” he said. “She’s superb at helping others accomplish goals for the university.”

During the news conference, Mason showed that she also has a sense of humor.

“I intend to shout loud and often in the years ahead – I’ve been practing – ‘Go Hawks!'” she said.

The university’s presidential selection process has been controversial since it began last summer. In November, the Board of Regents rejected the initial four finalists and formed another search committee to find new candidates. Many involved have spoken out about the extended search and level of secrecy involved.

Associated Press writer Luke Meredith in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.