Presidential News Bytes

Brother Dietrich Reinhart, longtime president of St. John’s University, in Collegeville, Minn., announced yesterday that he is retiring for health reasons, Minnesota Public Radio reports. Brother Reinhart, who was recently found to have melanoma in his lungs and brain, will step down as soon as an interim replacement is appointed.

The Associated Press reports that a presidential-search committee at Georgia State University has winnowed its list of finalists to two. The leading contenders to replace Carl V. Patton, who is retiring after 16 years as president, are Mark P. Becker, provost at the University of South Carolina at Columbia, and Brooks A. Keel, vice chancellor for research and economic development at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. See a press release for details.

William R. Brody, the soon-to-be-former president of the Johns Hopkins University announced earlier this week that he will take over as head of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in La Jolla, Cal., starting on March 1, The Baltimore Sun reports. Brody, who had planned to retire at the end of this year after a 12-year tenure at Hopkins, said the chance to lead the renowned biomedical research institute that was founded by Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine, was an opportunity of a lifetime, The Sun reports. Johns Hopkins has yet to name Brody’s successor.