Wisconsin Ag Connection - VandenBosch Chosen as New Dean for UW-Madison College of Ag

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VandenBosch Chosen as New Dean for UW-Madison College of Ag
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 10/24/2011

A professor of plant biology at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul will become the new dean for the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Kathryn VandenBosch was chosen by a 16-member search committee after former dean Molly Jahn stepped down on January 1. VandenBosch will assume her new role on March 1, where she will earn a $250,000 annual salary. Interim Dean Bill Tracy plans to return to his roles as professor and chair of the Department of Agronomy.

"We are delighted that professor VandenBosch will be joining us. She brings a wealth of experience, accomplishments, and leadership acquired at public land grant institutions not dissimilar from Wisconsin. Her very articulate and insightful approach will be most effective in the diverse components of CALS and Wisconsin's agricultural community," says Provost Paul M. DeLuca Jr.

VandenBosch has headed the plant biology department at the University of Minnesota since 2001, with a brief hiatus in 2006 to serve as interim dean of the newly formed College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. She is also a member and former chair of the executive committees of both the Faculty Senate and the University Senate.

"I am really honored by my selection and very appreciative of how welcoming everyone has been," VandenBosch said. "I'm looking forward to getting to know people better and becoming a part of the CALS community."

Prior to her tenure at the University of Minnesota, VandenBosch was a faculty member at Texas A&M University for 12 years. She holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in botany from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and spent time at both UW-Madison and the John Innes Institute in Great Britain as a postdoctoral associate.

The CALS dean oversees the school's 19 academic departments, which span environmental, social, and basic life sciences and production agriculture, as well as numerous research centers and a range of outreach and university extension activities. They also coordinate Cooperative Extension Service programs within the college and serves as director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station.

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