Finalists Selected for UI College of Science Dean Position
Friday, April 18 2003
April 17, 2003^MOSCOW – Four finalists have been chosen to interview for the University of Idaho College of Science dean’s position. Interviews with finalists will take place between Monday, April 21, and Tuesday, May 6, with opportunities for the public to meet each candidate.^The finalists include Rex F. Gandy, chairman of UI’s Department of Physics; John H. Hall Jr., chair of the Chemistry Department and the Bruce Rauner Professor of Natural Sciences at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga.; Michael F. Hochella Jr., professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va.; and Judith Totman Parrish, associate dean of the University of Arizona College of Science in Tucson, Ariz.^The new dean will succeed Earl H. Bennett, who will retire in June after nearly 30 years of service to UI. The College of Science was established in 2002 as part of a major university reorganization.^John H. Hall, Jr., will interview on April 21 and 22. The open forum will be at 8:30 a.m. April 21 in the Commons Crest Room.^Hall is chair of the Chemistry Department and the Bruce Rauner Professor of Natural Sciences at Morehouse College, positions he has held since 2001. He served as associate vice president for research at Ohio State University and executive director of the Ohio State University Research Foundation from 1994 to 2001. ^He was a consultant and senior presenter with Innovations International, Inc., in Salt Lake City, Utah, from 1990-93, and a research scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Geophysical Sciences, now the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, from 1979 to 1990. He earned his doctorate in theoretical computational chemistry from Harvard University in 1979 and a bachelor’s in chemistry from Morehouse College.^Michael F. Hochella Jr. will interview on April 23 and 24. The open forum will be at 3:30 p.m. April 23, in the Student Union Building Gold Room.^Hochella is a professor of mineralogy and geochemistry in the Department of Geological Sciences at Virginia Tech, a position he has held since 1996. He was an associate professor at Virginia Tech from 1992-96 and associate research professor at Stanford University from 1989-92, where he was a senior research associate from 1983-89.^He was a senior scientist with Corning, Inc., from 1981-83. He earned a doctorate in 1981 from Stanford University’s School of Earth Sciences, and holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Virginia Tech. Hochella also served as president of the Geochemical Society, an organization with 2,000 members, from 2000-01. He is finishing a six-year leadership commitment to the Geochemical Society and currently serves as past-president.^Rex F. Gandy will interview April 29 and 30; the open forum is April 29 at 1:30 p.m. in the SUB Gold Room.^Gandy is professor and chairman of the UI Department of Physics, a position he has held since 1999. Prior to coming to Idaho, he was the associate dean for research at Auburn University’s College of Sciences and Mathematics from 1998 to 1999. He was on the faculty at Auburn from 1984-99. Gandy earned his doctorate in physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1981. He also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Memphis.^Judith Totman Parrish will interview in Moscow on May 5 and 6; the open forum is May 5 at 8:30 a.m. in the Commons Whitewater Room.^Parrish is the associate dean of the College of Science at the University of Arizona, a position she has held since 2000. She served as interim head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and interim director of the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona in 2001. ^She has been a professor in Arizona’s Department of Geosciences since 1992, and was an associate professor from 1988-92. In 1994, Parrish was a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. She did research for the U.S. Geological Survey from 1984-88. She earned a doctorate in earth sciences in 1979 from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and holds a master’s in earth sciences, a master’s in biology and a bachelor’s in biology from UC Santa Cruz.^Contacts: Cheryl Tribble, assistant to the dean, College of Science, (208) 885-6195, cherylt@uidaho.edu; or Charles Hatch, acting provost and search committee chairman, (208) 885-6448, crhatch@uidaho.edu.^-30-^EB–4/17/2003–SCI^
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