Yale named its current provost, Stanford graduate Peter Salovey ’80 M.A. ’80, as the new university president. Salovey, a noted professor of psychology, replaces Yale President Richard Levin ’68, also a Stanford graduate.

Stanford President John Hennessy described the second selection of a Stanford alumnus as Yale President as an example of the “long-lasting and wonderful relationship with our colleagues at Yale,” in the Nov. 8 meeting of the Faculty Senate.

Salovey will assume his new post as Yale’s 23rd president on June 30, 2013. Levin announced his intention to step down on Aug. 30, after 20 years as Yale President. Salovey’s appointment marks the culmination of a two-month search process by the Yale Presidential Search Committee.

Salovey left Stanford in 1980 after earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in sociology to attend graduate school at Yale. He went on to become a psychology professor and department head, dean of Yale College and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences before assuming the post of provost.

The Yale Search Committee was considering as many as 150 candidates for the post before the Yale Corporation unanimously appointed Salovey.

“A superb scholar, Peter is highly regarded in his field of social psychology for seminal research on the concept of emotional intelligence and influential studies of effective health communications,” Senior Fellow of the Yale Corporation Edward Bass wrote in the press release announcing Salovey’s appointment. “He is also known as an exceptional teacher, making introductory psychology memorable for generations of students.”

While at Stanford, Salovey lived in Burbank during his freshman year and was a Bridge Peer Counselor his sophomore through senior years, according to his Stanford Alumni Directory profile.