Former Kyoto University President Hiroshi Matsumoto will replace Nobel laureate Ryoji Noyori as head of the Riken research institute, the science ministry decided Tuesday.

Noyori, 76, will leave the post on March 31, halfway through his third term through March 2018, after a difficult year caused by a researcher's highly publicized misconduct in a stem-cell study.

The 2001 Nobel winner in chemistry has served as head of the leading government-backed research organization since October 2003.

He has led reform efforts at the institute since Haruko Obokata was found to have engaged in misconduct in producing research papers that claimed she had come up with a speedy and easy way to create STAP — stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency — cells.

Matsumoto, a 72-year-old expert on space plasma physics, was president of Kyoto University for six years until last September. He is a member of the government's Committee on National Space Policy.