Meredith Hay awaits approval by the Board of Regents.

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Meredith Hay, an internationally known physiologist who has directed research activity at the University of Iowa for the past three years, was appointed Friday as the University of Arizona's next provost and executive vice president.

The announcement by UA President Robert Shelton ends a yearlong search and marks the largest and most important addition to his leadership team since he took over as president in July 2006.

"Meredith Hay is an outstanding scholar and exceptional executive, and we are fortunate she will be filling such a crucial leadership role at the UA," Shelton said in a written statement.

"The university has made tremendous strides in recent years. Having someone of Meredith's caliber to lead our academic enterprise portends great things for our future."

When she starts April 30, Hay will be the UA's chief academic officer and second-in-command. Hay replaces Eugene Sander, the UA's agriculture dean who has served as interim provost since George Davis stepped down from the position after seven years. The appointment awaits approval by the Arizona Board of Regents, which will meet March 6 and 7 in Tempe.

"I'm just so excited about joining the University of Arizona family and getting to know the Tucson community," Hay said from Iowa in a telephone interview Friday. "I'm thrilled to join Dr. Shelton's team."

Vicki Chandler, director of the Bio5 Institute, served as the chairwoman of the search committee, which received 113 nominations and 61 formal applications for the position.

"I'm exceedingly pleased," Chandler said. "Dr. Hay is an excellent choice. She's spent her whole career in public universities, and she complements the president's background and discipline well."

Chandler said the search committee members did their jobs well and turned out three finalists who all fit the UA well.

"We were able to identify three very strong finalists who had a diversity of backgrounds and experiences and ideas," she said. "I thought all three people we brought to campus were exceptionally talented, and all three had some very specific strengths."

The other two finalists were Pramod P. Khargonekar, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Florida, and Robert D. Newman, dean of humanities and associate vice president for interdisciplinary studies at the University of Utah. Hay and Khargonekar were also finalists for the provost position at the University of California-Davis.

Hay, 45, said she shares in Shelton's top priority of strengthening the faculty through better recruitment and retention and improved salaries.

"There are so many outstanding areas at the university that are truly world renowned," Hay said. "I have a lot of learn and a lot of listening to do, and the sooner I can get involved and start learning the ropes the better."

Hay's appointment comes just one day after Shelton announced that any hiring for the remainder of the fiscal year will be limited "only those positions most critical to the operations of the university," and she acknowledged the economic down- turn in Arizona will create financial challenges for the UA.

"Many states are facing tough financial times, and the university has to do its part," she said.

"I look forward to helping to come up with a plan that will keep the university moving forward."

Hay said student retention and graduation rates will be another focus, and her experience in Iowa involved strong relationships between the university and community colleges.

"Increased college preparedness across the state is a big issue and a community concern," she said.

Hay said it was too early for her to comment on some other specific issues, including three ongoing searches for college deans, faculty committee reviews of the general education curriculum and a possible restructuring of the humanities college.

Hay will also be appointed as a tenured professor of physiology in the UA's College of Medicine. Her salary will be $350,000, which is $50,000 more than Davis was paid as provost.

Even while vice president of research at Iowa, Hay maintained a National Institutes of Health-funded research laboratory studying cardiovascular neurobiology, specifically the role of sex and sex difference in the development of hypertension.

Hay joined the University of Iowa in 2005 after serving as assistant to the vice president for academic affairs at the University of Missouri system and director of the National Center for Gender Physiology at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

A Texas native, Hay earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver, a master's degree in neurobiology from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and her doctorate in cardiovascular pharmacology from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio.

She trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Iowa and the Baylor College of Medicine.

Before joining the faculty at Missouri in 1996, Hay was a faculty member in physiology at the UT health center in San Antonio.

Current Vice Provost Juan R. García is named to new post. Page B2