Tufts University Appoints Oxford Neuroscientist Monaco as Next President

(Corrects to say Monaco is a vice chancellor in first paragraph.)

Tufts University named Anthony P. Monaco, a physician, neuroscientist and a vice chancellor at the University of Oxford in England, as its next president.

Monaco, 51, will take over next year, the university in Medford, Massachusetts, said today on its website. In his academic research, Monaco identified the first gene specifically involved in human speech and language, according to Tufts.

Monaco earned an undergraduate degree at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, and his M.D. and Ph.D. at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has spent the last 20 years at Oxford and is a native of Wilmington, Delaware. Tufts conducted an international search, considering candidates from business, public service, nonprofits and academia, James A. Stern, chairman of Tufts board of trustees, said in a letter.

“Anthony Monaco is a pioneering life scientist with a record of exceptional accomplishment as a university leader, biomedical researcher and teacher,” Stern said. “Tony will bring to the presidency of Tufts deeply held commitments to academic excellence, diversity, a global perspective and the university’s central role in society.”

Monaco succeeds Lawrence S. Bacow, who announced in February that he would step down in 2011 after 10 years as president.

Tufts was founded in 1852. Graduates include Pierre Omidyar, chairman of EBay Inc., and Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief executive officer.

To contact the reporter on this story: Janet Lorin in New York jlorin@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Kaufman at jkaufman17@bloomberg.net