Harvard names first female head

Harvard's search committee looked for a year before settling on Faust

Harvard University in the US has selected its first female president, Drew Gilpin Faust, 59, a prominent historian of the American South.

She takes office as the university undergoes major curriculum changes and an expensive campus expansion.

The previous president, Lawrence Summers, resigned last year after a turbulent five-year term.

He provoked outrage when he said women had less "intrinsic aptitude" than men for science.

Dr Faust, the Dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will become the university's 28th president on 1 July.

"She knows Harvard and higher education, and her interests extend to the whole of the university, across the arts and sciences and the professional domains," said James R Houghton, senior member of the Harvard Corporation and chair of the presidential search committee.

Faculty revolt

Radcliffe, a former women's college, was merged into Harvard in 1999 as a research institute with a focus on gender issues.

Dr Faust's appointment makes Harvard the fourth of America's eight prestigious Ivy League universities to have women presidents.

During Dr Summers' controversial leadership, Dr Faust oversaw two faculty task forces to look into gender diversity at Harvard.

Dr Summers had said genetic differences between men and women might explain the lack of women in leading scientific jobs.

His controversial leadership style divided opinion at Harvard and sparked a faculty revolt.

Harvard, the oldest institute of higher education in the United States, was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1636.