Ex-UC Berkeley Chief to Head Smithsonian
Ira Michael Heyman, a lawyer and former chancellor of UC Berkeley, was named Wednesday to the post of secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
It marked the first time in the 148-year history of the institution that a non-scientist was chosen as the chief executive officer.
The vote of the Smithsonian’s 17-member board of regents “finally was unanimous,” said Barber Conable, head of the search committee. He declined to name competing finalists, but a Smithsonian employee said Thomas Lovejoy, assistant secretary of the institution, had supporters.
Heyman, now counselor to the Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, succeeds anthropologist Robert McC. Adams, who has been secretary for 10 years. Adams has said he wants to return to research.
Heyman’s experience as chancellor of UC Berkeley from 1980 to 1990--a job that requires skill at fund raising--was a factor in his choice.
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