PIERRE, S.D. (AP) – Gov. Dennis Daugaard has appointed a new member to a board that owns and operates the Sanford Underground Research Facility at the old Homestake Mine in Lead. Ron Wheeler of Deadwood has been named to the Board of Directors of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority. Wheeler recently stepped down as the Authority’s executive director. He was in that position for five years. Before that he was in private business in Watertown and Huron. Wheeler is a former Secretary of Transportation for South Dakota and Commissioner of Economic Development. Wheeler’s appointment is effective immediately. He fills a vacancy caused last fall by the death of President Robert Wharton of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.