CFAES Announces New Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education

July 2, 2018
Head and shoulders picture of Gary Pierzynski

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) welcomes Gary Pierzynski as its new associate dean for research and graduate education.

"Ohio State University and CFAES have an outstanding reputation for research, which employs the complete spectrum of basic to applied research to address many of the grand challenges for society,” Pierzynski said. “I am looking forward to working with faculty, staff and students to further enhance research productivity and the impact of those efforts from CFAES.”

Pierzynski joins CFAES on July 2 from Kansas State University, where he was a university distinguished professor and head of the Department of Agronomy, a comprehensive unit with a $14 million budget and significant roles in teaching, research, and extension. As department head, he more than doubled undergraduate enrollment with 100 percent graduate placement; enhanced graduate student stipends; and created an advisory board for the department.

Prior to that, Pierzynski was interim director of Kansas State University Research and Extension and interim dean of its College of Agriculture. He is president-elect of the American Society of Agronomy and previously served as president of the Soil Science Society of America. He serves on the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. He received his Ph.D. in soil chemistry from The Ohio State University in 1989, and his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Michigan State University in 1982 and 1985, respectively.

“Pierzynski will be a great addition to the CFAES leadership team,” said Dr. Cathann A. Kress, vice president for agricultural administration and dean of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University. “As an experienced educator and leader, he will enhance CFAES’s research enterprise and the graduate student experience.”

As associate dean for research and graduate education, Pierzynski is the principal administrative officer of the CFAES research enterprise and will drive the future strategy for enhancing and expanding research and graduate education within the college, as well as supporting undergraduate research.

 

Writer(s):

Michelle Ball

614-292-7538

ball.1893@osu.edu