Science Dean Finalists to Visit Campus

Utah State University Executive Vice President and Provost Raymond T. Coward announced that four final candidates for the position of dean of the university’s College of Science have been invited to visit the northern Utah campus for interviews during January.

“We’re very excited about these four outstanding scholars who were selected from a very large and very strong pool of candidates,” said Coward. “All of these individuals are respected scientists, experienced administrators and established academic leaders.”

 

Candidates and the dates of their visits are:

 

John G. Dorsey, the Katherine Blood Hoffman Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State University;

 

Kate C. Miller, associate dean of the College of Science and professor of geological sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso;

 

Mary S. Hubbard, professor and head of the Department of Geology at Kansas State University; and

 

John S. Oldow, professor of geological sciences at the University of Idaho.

 

Final itineraries for each candidate will include individualized meetings with students, faculty and staff and an open forum, which will afford the campus community the opportunity to ask questions of each applicant. Schedule information, as finalized, will be posted on the Provost’s Office Web site. Curriculum vitae and other credentials on each candidate are also posted on this site.

 

All candidates will be featured in an open forum to meet with students, faculty and staff.  The schdule is included elsewhere in Utah State Today.

 

Dorsey served as chair of the Department of Chemistry at Florida State University from 1994-99. In 2006 he received the “Award in Chromatography” from the American Chemical Society and he has served as editor of the Journal of Chromatography A since 1999.

 

Dorsey earned an A.B. degree in chemistry from Kentucky’s Transylvania University and master’s and doctorate degrees in analytical chemistry from the University of Cincinnati.

 

Prior to her current position as associate dean of UTEP’s College of Science, Miller served as chair of the college’s Department of Geological Sciences from 1999-2004. She directs the college’s corporate-funded, multidisciplinary Math and Science Teachers Academy. Her research has focused on the application of active-source seismology studies to the origin, structure and evolution of the continental lithosphere.

 

Miller graduated with an A.B. degree from Princeton University and earned master’s and doctorate degrees in geophysics from Stanford University.

 

During her tenure at KSU, Hubbard has contributed to two target programs of excellence at the university – the Center for the Understanding of Origins and the African Studies Center. Her expertise lies in the field of structural geology and tectonics and she has completed field research in Senegal, New Zealand, France, Pakistan, Nepal, Norway and throughout the American West.

 

Hubbard earned a bachelor’s in geology from the University of Colorado and completed her doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Oldow served on the faculties of Texas Christian University and Rice University, before joining the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Idaho as department head in 1995. His research has focused on regional tectonics and processes related to active continental margins and he has served as president of two companies, Tectonic Analysis Group, Inc. and Challis Travertine and Minerals, Inc.

 

Oldow earned a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Washington and a doctorate in geology from Northwestern University.

 

Coward appointed a screening and selection committee last August. Chaired by College of Natural Resources Dean Nat B. Frazer, the committee included ASUSU Science Senator Brittany Webb; Michelle Baker, associate professor (Biology); Associate Dean Lisa Berreau, associate professor (Chemistry and Biochemistry); Richard Cutler, professor (Mathematics/Statistics); Vladimir Kulyukin, assistant professor (Computer Science); Tony Lowry, assistant professor (Geology); Kathy McConkie, grants specialist (Center for Integrated BioSystems); and Jan Sojka, professor and department head (Physics).

 

“This has been a very rewarding selection process,” said Frazer. “The four finalists were selected from a pool of 140 nominees, each of whom was contacted by USU. Provost Coward and I are grateful to committee members for their hours of conscientious effort.”

 

The selected candidate will succeed Donald Fiesinger, who has served as dean of the college for the past seven years. He was named interim dean in 2000, following the appointment of former dean James MacMahon as vice president for university advancement. Fiesinger was appointed dean in 2003.

 

Fiesinger returns to the faculty of the college’s department of geology, which he joined in 1976 and for which he served as head for 18 years.

 

USU’s College of Science includes the academic departments of biology, chemistry and biochemistry, computer science, mathematics and statistics, geology and physics. More than 1400 undergraduates and more than 250 graduate and doctoral students are currently enrolled in degree programs administered by the college. 

 

USU College of Science Dean Search

 

Contacts: Raymond T. Coward, 435-797-1166; Nat B. Frazer, 435-797-2452