HOUSTON -- The first woman and the first Hispanic has taken the helm as president of Texas A&M University, KPRC Local 2, Your Education Station, reported Tuesday.

A microbiologist and researcher, 48-year-old Elsa Murano replaced Robert Gates in January.

"To find myself as president of this wonderful university is surreal at times, so it's an opportunity I will not squander," she said.

Murano brings a unique perspective to A&M.

As a child, she fled Cuba and settled in Miami. She was the first in her family to attend college.

She then became an associate professor at Texas A&M.

In 2001, she was tapped by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to become the highest-ranking food safety official in U.S. government and presided over the first case of mad cow disease.

Murano returned to A&M as dean before being promoted to president.

She said she believes her presidency will bring second looks from potential minority students, especially because A&M did not accept female students until the 1970s and the campus has lacked racial diversity.

"I think we need to realize that just having a Hispanic woman as president is not enough at Texas A&M University to say, 'Well, for now we need to relax. All these minority students are going to come flooding in.' It doesn't work that way," she said.

Murano said that this fall, there will be more minority freshman at A&M than ever before, but the numbers are still too low.

She pledged to dramatically increase recruiting efforts by focusing on minority high school students as young as ninth grade, and offering more scholarships.

Murano wants the world to know that A&M is much more than just the Corps, such as academics and scientific research.

Murano wants to hire 30 superstar researchers to teach students and raise A&M's national profile in hopes of earning a top 10 university ranking by 2020.

As for the suspended bonfire tradition, with lawsuits from victims' families pending, Murano said the legal system needs to run its course. When the lawsuits are resolved, A&M will consider bringing the bonfire back after studying whether it can be done safely.

"It's a significant event. It's something we continually remember and we will do the right thing. That's the bottom line," Murano said.

Murano has already made her mark on the campus. This fall, the tuition increase will only be 5 percent compared to 10 percent increases in past years.

A lack of security at A&M recently prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop its research involving microbiological agents. Murano said the problems have been corrected and the research will resume this summer.