The University of Padua has elected Daniela Mapelli as its new rector, the first woman to hold the top post at the institution since it was founded in 1222. Mapelli, a professor of psychology, begins her six-year term on 1 October, just in time for the university's 800th anniversary next year.

A native of Lecco in northern Italy, the 55-year-old Mapelli saw off competition for the rectorate from another woman, law professor Patrizia Marzaro. Making reference to the rows of portraits of past rectors - eight centuries of male faces - Mapelli said: "From next October we will finally be able to say 'men and women who led the University of Padua.'"