BELOIT — After eight years at the top of the Beloit College hierarchy, President John Burris is moving on to new challenges in a new career.

“I’m leaving because I have a wonderful opportunity — a great opportunity to do something different,” he said. When he steps down from his position at the college on June 30, Burris will take over as president of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

The organization provides grants to under-funded areas of scientific and medical research — such things as parasitology and fungal diseases. Burris said the organization approached him to fill its presidency. He’d previously served as a board member for six years, from 1996 to 2002.

“It’s a foundation whose interests are similar to mine,” he said. “Giving away money, instead of asking for money, (will be a nice change of pace).”

Local leaders have made a point of thanking Burris for his service and community involvement as the academic year winds to a close. City Manager Larry Arft presented Burris with an official proclamation thanking him for his work in the community.

“The list of positive examples of things they’ve done to help the city goes on and on,” Arft said, citing the downtown bookstore and several storefronts that the college purchased downtown to use as learning spaces. “We’ll certainly miss John, and hate to see him leave the city.”

Moving to Beloit — in land-locked Wisconsin — in 2000 was not as hard as one might expect for someone with a doctorate in marine biology; the move actually was a full-circle homecoming of sorts. Burris grew up in nearby Madison, and his mother had family in Beloit.

“From a research perspective (in marine biology), you have to like the smell of saltwater,” he said, “but by that point, I wasn’t doing direct research. A secondary benefit is that I’m from Madison, which made it sort of like coming home, which was a nice aspect of the job at Beloit.”

Burris has had a full, fulfilling career in academics. He left Wisconsin to study biology as an undergraduate at Harvard, and then returned to serve as president of Beloit College. His dedication to science and a willingness to try out new roles — he’s worked as a professor at Penn State, scientific researcher and administrator — is not lost on the organization he soon will serve.

“Dr. Burris brings a wide variety of talents and experience to the post,” said Phil Gold, chairman of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s board of directors in a statement announcing Burris’ hiring. “He has been an active investigator in biology, an administrator of an outstanding biological research facility (and) a member of numerous important national committees …”

James Sanger, president of the Beloit College Board of Trustees, described Burris’ new post as a “an appropriate capstone to a career that has been devoted to scientific research and education.”

The board has appointed Beloit College alumnus Dick Niemiec as interim president to take Burris’ place.

Sanger said Burris’ legacy at the college is assured.

“It’s the progress of the institution on many fronts,” Sanger said. “That’s what really stands out to me, is the progress the college has made since John came in 2000. The school has become better in a wide variety of ways while John has been president.” When choosing a president, Sanger added, “you try to pick somebody who will take the college forward.”

What initially piqued Burris’ interest in Beloit College was the positive impression he had gained of liberal arts students, after one of his three daughters attended Carleton College in Minnesota.

“That got me interested in small, liberal-arts colleges,” he said.

He was also impressed with the caliber of the liberal-arts students he knew as director of the Marine Biology Lab in Woods Hole, Mass., his position prior to coming to Beloit.

“I was incredibly impressed,” he said, adding that by the time Beloit College came calling, he was excited about the possibility of working in a more hands-on capacity with students.

The new position came with plenty of challenges.

“Every time there’s something a little different,” he said. “(For example), I had little or no experience with admissions.”

Given that 70 percent of the college’s operating budget comes from tuition, admissions is a key issue for any Beloit College president.

Some of the biggest challenges came from simple day-to-day operations.

“Things which are as mundane as the cost of food,” he said, “(and) making sure we have as many beds as we have students.”

Burris is proud of the progress the college has made during his tenure, both the physical campus and the people comprising the organization.

“I think the college is healthier than it’s ever been, financially,” he said, though he is quick to deny credit for himself. “Any college president who makes grandiose claims about what he or she has done — be wary,” he said.

Still, as a scientist, Burris is proud of the college’s new Center for the Sciences — especially the way it faces the Rock River and the Beloit community, rather than towards the campus — and of new campus housing, like townhouses built on Clary Street.

“But that’s just one concrete — no pun intended — example of some of the changes that have occurred,” he said. “I think an even more concrete change is in the quality of students and faculty.”

Sanger agrees.

“We have a record number of applicants to the school,” he said.

During Burris’ tenure, enrollment at the college increased by 15 percent, and the admissions office has seen a 40 percent increase in applications.

“(And) it’s more than just having the students apply,” Sanger said. “The students that are matriculating now to Beloit College are absolutely superb kids, and some of the new faculty we’ve gotten are just absolutely superb.”

While he is ready to move on to the next challenge, Burris said there are things he will miss about Beloit.

“Of course, I’ll miss the people, my friends, the college,” he said, noting that the city sometimes isn’t viewed as favorably as it should be. “Beloit’s a remarkable city, in terms of how much it’s changed, how much it’s improved,” he said. “I think we sometimes we don’t appreciate how nice it is — it’s definitely a nicer place than when I arrived eight years ago.”

He also will miss being able to walk to work, and doubts he may ever see another institution so beloved by its employees.

“I’ve never seen a place where the people that work here love a place as much as they do,” he said. “There continues to be a culture of excellence, which I’m not going to take credit for.

“I think the college will keep growing stronger.”