Penn Medical School professor Stephen Emerson will be the next president of Haverford College, Haverford officials announced at a public ceremony last night.
Emerson is slated to begin the presidency officially on July 1.
He will replace current president Thomas Tritton, whose 10-year term ends on June 30.
A 1974 Haverford alumnus, Emerson earned a slew of graduate degrees at Yale University, including a master's in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and medical and doctorate degrees in cell biology and immunology.
After launching his career at Harvard University and the University of Michigan, in 1994, Emerson came to Penn, where he ultimately became the Francis C. Wood professor in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Pediatrics.
"Dr. Emerson is a noted clinician, scientist, teacher and scholar who has had a very distinguished career at Penn," wrote Arthur Rubenstein, the dean of the School of Medicine, in an e-mail last night.
But Emerson's true calling, it seems, is to return once more to Haverford.
"I am excited to return to my alma mater as its President," Emerson said in a press release.
In an e-mail last night, Penn President Amy Gutmann described Emerson as "a brilliant scientist and teacher."
"Haverford has tapped the best in choosing Steve. . I welcome him in this exciting leadership position as a wonderful new colleague," she wrote.
As the 13th president of Haverford, located in suburban Philadelphia, Emerson will be charged with "build[ing] on the College's substantial strengths and [moving] Haverford to a new level of excellence and prominence," according to Haverford's Web site.
"Our 21-member committee worked diligently to find the best leader to move one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country into a still stronger position both academically and financially," said Haverford Search Committee Chair and Vice Chair of the Board of Managers, Howard Lutnick, in the same press statement.
Founded in 1833, Haverford boasts a student body of 1,200 and 110 full-time faculty members.
"This is an educational community that values the individual student and whose professors offer an intensely personal and scholarly undergraduate education," Emerson said.
