Former UC Davis scholar and administrator M.R.C. Greenwood was appointed provost and senior vice president of academic affairs, the second highest post in the UC system, during a special meeting of the UC regents on Monday.

Greenwood, who is an internationally recognized expert in genetics and nutrition and a national leader in science and higher education policy, has served as chancellor of UC Santa Cruz since 1996. She will assume her new post on April 1.

As provost, Greenwood will become the highest-ranking woman holding a systemwide post at UC and the first woman appointed to the position.

She will oversee academic planning, research and academic policies for the 10-campus UC system. Other units under her supervision will include the Continuing Education of the Bar, Education Abroad Program, educational outreach, UC Press, UC Extension, the California Policy Research Center, and the Washington, D.C., Center.

"She brings the perfect credentials to this position," said UC President Robert Dynes. "UC Santa Cruz is a campus on the move -- a campus making dramatic strides in countless areas -- and M.R.C.'s leadership has had a great deal to do with that."

Throughout the nation, public higher education is facing major challenges and increasing expectations as society looks to universities for answers to pressing problems, Dynes said. "(UC) needs to be a leader in confronting the challenges and pursuing the opportunities of this new era. Because M.R.C. Greenwood is exactly the right person to join me and the rest of the UC system in this exciting endeavor, I made every effort to convince her to accept this position."

Under Greenwood's leadership since 1996, UC Santa Cruz has:

• Increased the number of academic programs by 52 percent, from 63 to 96, including a 41 percent increase in graduate programs;
• Created its first professional school, the Baskin School of Engineering;
• Established two new residential colleges;
• More than doubled extramural research support;
• Expanded total student enrollment by approximately 54 percent, with a nearly 50 percent increase in graduate enrollment;
• Hired 250 new faculty members;
• Constructed nearly one million assignable square feet in academic buildings and housing, including 2,800 spaces in new student housing;
• Acquired 50 acres of oceanfront property to expand research opportunities at Long Marine Laboratory; and
• Raised more private donations than the previous total for the campus's entire history.

"I dearly love the Santa Cruz campus, and I had not planned on leaving it so soon," said Greenwood. "But President Dynes is a very persuasive man, and he convinced me that I can better serve the university in this new role.

"(UC) delivers tremendous value to its students, and through its research, to the public at large," Greenwood added. "I am honored to be called on to help further work that is so critical for California."

Dynes said UC will launch as quickly as possible a national search for a permanent replacement for Greenwood and expects to have a new chancellor at UC Santa Cruz by no later than the beginning of the next academic year.

Greenwood, 60, replaces C. Judson King as provost of the UC system. King is retiring after eight years in the position and will return to UC Berkeley to become director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education.

After reviewing a group of about 60 candidates, a committee composed of regents, chancellors and faculty advised Dynes in making his selection.

Lawrence Pitts, chair of UC's Academic Council and an advisory committee member, said: "We're fortunate that she's willing to bring her energy and ideas to the Office of the President, where I know that she will help President Dynes and the faculty move UC forward in these turbulent times."

Greenwood is a nationally recognized expert in a range of science and higher education policy issues, and she has testified at numerous legislative hearings in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., on issues ranging from faculty gender equity to national security. She will be paid $380,000 a year. The salary falls between the averages paid to provosts of comparable public and private institutions.

Greenwood received her A.B., summa cum laude, from Vassar College in 1968, and received her Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in 1973. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where she served as president in 1998 and chair in 1999. She serves as a board member of leading national professional organizations and has been appointed to a variety of high-level positions advising state and federal government in science and higher education policy.

Before taking the reins at UC Santa Cruz, Greenwood served as dean of graduate studies, vice provost for academic outreach and professor of biology and internal medicine at UC Davis. Prior to that, she taught at Vassar College.

From November 1993 to May 1995, while on leave from UC Davis, Greenwood served as associate director for science at the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy in the executive office of President Bill Clinton.