Nebraska’s governor, David Heineman, said today he would seek to replace an ousted member of the governing board of the University of Nebraska system with someone who shares his opposition to embryonic-stem-cell research.

The state’s Supreme Court on Friday booted C. David Hergert from the university’s Board of Regents for breaking campaign-finance rules (The Chronicle, July 10). Mr. Hergert had received strong support from a Nebraska anti-abortion group during his 2004 election and was thought to be opposed to stem-cell research, although the issue had not been prominent during his stint on the board.

Nebraska’s battle over stem-cell research erupted in 1999, when the governor at the time, Mike Johanns, a Republican, tried to stop the university’s medical center from using tissue from aborted human fetuses in research projects (The Chronicle, December 2, 1999, and April 6, 2001).

In a news conference today, Mr. Heineman, a Republican, said he was seeking candidates to replace Mr. Hergert’s seat on the board. Whoever he appoints will serve until January 2007, but would need to prevail in a general election to serve Mr. Hergert’s full term, which ends in 2010.