On April 25, former New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson (R) was named president of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.

Wilson succeeds the late Robert Wharton, who died in September. She will begin her duties on the Rapid City campus in mid-June, and will become the first female president in the school's 128-year history.

Wilson, 52, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and a Rhodes Scholar, was elected to Congress in an Albuquerque-based district in a 1998 special election, serving on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and as chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence. She lost a bid for the Republican Senate nomination in New Mexico in 2008 and was the unsuccessful GOP Senate nominee there in 2012.

As president of a consulting company in Albuquerque, Wilson has worked as a senior adviser to several national laboratories, including Sandia, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, the Nevada Test Site, Battelle Memorial Institute and others. She served as a Cabinet secretary under former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and as a staffer on the National Security Council under President George H.W. Bush.

In a statement announcing her new position, Wilson said, "The South Dakota School of Mines is showing how great schools can meet those challenges. Mines provides a rigorous, world-class education that prepares graduates for leadership in science and engineering at a price families can afford. It's a great school and I'm very proud to be the newest Hardrocker."