Iowa State University president Steven Leath is leaving to become president of Auburn University. Governor Terry Branstad says he appreciates what Leath has done during his five-year tenure in Ames.

Branstad is also praising Leath for “growing” the university’s endowment funds. Leath, who is 59, was a vice president at North Carolina when he was named Iowa State’s president in 2012. Auburn and Iowa State are both “land grant” universities. Auburn was known as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama when it was established in 1872. Iowa State — originally called the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm — is the nation’s first land-grant college.