The Republican Congressman from Columbia issued a written statement Wednesday following his private interview with a 19-member advisory panel meeting in St. Louis.

The committee, in a process draped in secrecy, is looking for a replacement for Elson Floyd, who left in April to become president of Washington State University.

Speculation has increasingly centered on Hulshof, who received his bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Hulshof has opposed broadening embryonic stem cell research, which the Columbia campus is doing now. He says he would not inject partisan politics into the state's higher education system.

The UM Board of Curators refused to comment on Hulshof's announcement. A spokesman for the board would neither confirm nor deny Hulshof's candidacy.

The Board did announce it interviewed all three candidates in closed sessions held in St. Louis on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Presidential Search Committee plans to meet by conference call on Friday afternoon to discuss the interviews.

Hulshof is a native of Bertrand Missouri. He earned his undergraduate degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1980. Hulshof also attended the Mississippi School of Law, where graduated in 1980.

He is married to Renee Hulshof of Hannibal Missouri, who attended the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she graduated from the School of Journalism. They have two two daughters, Casey Elizabeth, 8, and Hannah McKinley, 5. The Hulshofs are currently living in Columbia and are active in the Newman Center Catholic Church in Columbia.

Hulshof was elected to Congress in 1996, and is serving his sixth term as the U.S. Representative serving Missouri's Ninth Congressional District, which is made up of 25 counties in northeastern and central Missouri.

Currently, Dr. Gordon H. Lamb is serving as Interim President of the UM system. Lamb is not a candidate for president.