CNAS

Three new department chairs assumed their positions in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of California, Riverside, on July 1, 2010.

Mikeal Roose, Professor of Genetics and Geneticist, is the new chair of the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, replacing Jodie Holt, Professor of Plant Physiology and Plant Physiologist.

• Roose studies the development and implementation of improved methods for crop improvement methods, especially for citrus and asparagus. He and his team have developed a number of new varieties, including the “Gold Nugget” and “Tango” mandarins. Educated at Reed College and UC Davis, where he received his Ph.D. in 1979. He joined the UCR faculty in 1982, and teaches courses in Introductory Genetics and in Advanced Plant Breeding.
• Holt served as department chair for 7 years. Her work focuses on population and physiological ecology of weedy and invasive plant species, and the application of that knowledge to management. She teaches Foundations of Plant Biology. She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and an M.S. and Ph.D. from UC Davis, the latter in 1982, when she joined the UCR faculty.

Michael Anderson, Professor and Soil Chemist in the Department of Environmental Sciences, has replaced Jay Gan, Professor of Soil Science and CE Specialist.

• Anderson studies the management of lakes and reservoirs; surface water quality and modeling; contaminants in soils, sediments, and waters; and environmental chemistry. He received his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in 1990. Anderson teaches courses in Limnology; Acquisition and Analysis of Environmental Data; Surface Chemistry of Soils; Environmental Organic Chemistry; and Soil and Water Chemistry.
• Gan was department chair for 3 years. He received his Ph.D. from Zhejiang University in 1988, coming to UCR in 1991. He teaches Fate and Transport of Contaminants in Soil and Environmental Organic Chemistry. His research interests are in the environmental fate, risk assessment, and regulation of pesticides and emerging contaminants; processes of organic contaminants in ecosystems; detoxification and remediation of organic contaminants; evaluation and development of best management practices; and method development for trace contaminant analysis.

James Baldwin, Professor of Nematology and Chair of the Department of Nematology, has taken on additional responsibilities as Chair of the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology. He replaces Michael Allen, who remains Professor of Plant Pathology and Director of the Center for Conservation Biology.

• Baldwin has been chair of the Department of Nematology most recently since 2001. He also was chair from 1990 to 1995. He received his Ph.D. in 1973 from North Carolina State University, and joined the UCR faculty in 1978. He specializes in systematics, testing hypotheses of nematode evolution through comparative reconstruction and developmental biology of character-rich nematode structures. He teaches a number of lower- and upper-level courses in nematology. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society of Nematologists.
• Allen’s research focuses on the regulation of community and ecosystem processes by soil organisms with special emphasis on mycorrhizal fungi. Currently he is concentrating on global change dynamics and structure of undisturbed areas, and how that information can be utilized in the conservation and restoration of native ecosystems. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Allen received a Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming in 1980. He joined the UCR Department of Plant Pathology in 1998, at the same time that he was named the founding director of the Center for Conservation Biology. He served as chair of Plant Pathology for 6 years.

The College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences wishes to acknowledge with thanks the service of its former chairs, and the willingness of its new chairs to accept the new challenge.