He earned his doctorate in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton.

Choi is also the first academic to fill the role of system president in almost a decade. Wolfe came to the role from a software company. He replaced Gary Forsee, who was the chief executive officer of Sprint.

The last president to come from an academic background was Elson Floyd, who left the system in 2007 to lead Washington State University. Floyd died last year.

An academic background was important to faculty from at least one of the University of Missouri system schools.

“When folks from the system came to Faculty Council and asked what we were looking for in a president, one of the main things we said is a deep knowledge and understanding of academia,” Mizzou Faculty Council president Ben Trachtenberg said.

He called Choi “a real academic,” adding that he’s excited to meet him.

Typically, the next step up from a university provost is to lead a single campus. Trachtenberg said the larger jump to a multicampus system isn’t an issue to him.

“It’s all about the person,” he said. “I think qualifications of a person are more important than” typical next steps.