A34-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 20, 2002
New Dean Named For UD College Of Agriculture, Natural Resources
NEWARK, Del. Robin W.
Morgan, who has served since
July as acting dean of the Uni
versity of Delaware (UD) College
of Agriculture and Natural Re
sources, has been named dean of
the college, effective July 1, act
ing Provost Dan Rich announced
March 26.
Morgan, a molecular biologist
and professor in the Department
of Animal and Food Sciences,
joined the UD faculty in 1985.
Her research, which she conducts
at the University’s Delaware Bio
technology Institute, centers on
the virus that causes Marek’s dis
ease in chickens.
“The College of Agriculture
and Natural Resources can antic
ipate a very bright future under
the leadership of Dean Robin
Morgan,” Rich said in announc
ing the appointment, “and I look
forward to continuing to work
with her.”
He said the search committee,
chaired by Engineering Dean
Eric W. Kaler, recommended
Morgan for the position based on
“her strong qualifications as a
scholar and teacher and her ex
cellent contributions as acting
dean contributions that have
earned the respect and admira
tion of colleagues across the Uni
versity and beyond the campus.”
The sedrch committee also
“made special mention of her
open and direct style of commu
nications, a quality that enhances
her ability to work with the di
verse internal and external con
stituencies that the college
serves,” Rich said.
Morgan has served as
dean since July, when
Dean John Nye left
the position and re
turned to the faculty.
Nye has remained in
his role as director of
cooperative extension,
a job he will continue
through June.
\The fitpe I spent as
gptuif’ dean' yas crit
ically' important be-
cause it allowed me to
the job
firsthand,” Morgan
said. “It gave me a
look at. the dean’s re-
sponsibilities and
helped me determine
some areas on which
to focus immediately.
It certainly will ease
the transition.”
Among the priori
ties she noted for the
college are selecting an
associate dean to lead
cooperative extension;
enhancing the support
for graduate pro
grams, with a special
emphasis on recruiting
top students; continu
ing the significant con
tributions the college
makes to the Delaware
Biotechnology Insti
tute (DBI); and in
creasing the number of
named professors.
Morgan said she
plans to launch a
search as soon as pos
sible to fill the associ
ate dean’s position,
adding that coopera
tive extension is an
arm of the college that
provides substantial
outreach to the agri
cultural and broader
community in areas
from farm manage
ment and youth pro
grams to nutrient
management and
poultry health.
Of DBI, where a
number of the col
lege’s faculty members
are affiliated researchers, Morgan
cited the importance of cross-dis
ciplinary work in the sciences.
“Some of the most exciting
areas of research today involve
more than one discipline,” she
said. “It’s important to have that
collaborative research, and the
college is committed to ensuring
the success of DBFs program.”
The college itself, she said, is
stronger than ever, with excellent
students, faculty and programs
that encompass far more than
traditional agricultural subjects.
And, with a relatively small un
dergraduate population of about
700, students and faculty tend to
form close bonds, she said.
Morgan said her tenure as act
ing dean has enabled her to get to
know the larger Delaware agri
cultural community, interacting
with farmers, business people
and policy makers in all three
counties. “The opportunity to
travel around the state and meet
people in the community has
been the best part of the past
year,” she said. “I’ve met so
many people who are so com
mitted to agriculture and to the
environmental sciences and so
willing to work hard that it’s
made me even more committed
to supporting those efforts.”
Morgan said she plans to con
tinue her research, working with
“my excellent collaborators,”
and, although she no longer is
able to visit her lab daily, she
stops by three or four times a
week to oversee the progress of
research. She said she has
acting
stopped teaching “except for a
few guest lectures,” but continues
to advise about 20 students.
“I enjoy teaching very much,
and I miss the challenge of being
in the classroom,” she said, “but
you move on to other things and
new challenges.”
Morgan is the first woman
dean in a college that once was
largely male but whose under
graduate student body today is
more than 60 percent female. She
said she often attends profession
al meetings at which she is one of
only a handful of women occa
sionally, she’s been the only
woman but that her gender
rarely is an issue.
“I’ve found the community to
be very accepting,” she said. “It’s
not something I focus on, and I
don’t think others do, either.”
Morgan also broke new ground
in 1985, when she was the first
molecular biologist to join the
college, a program that has
grown over the years. When she
began doing research at UD, she
recalled, Worrilow Hall then had
no darkroom and certain other
facilities she needed. In contrast,
her lab today at DBI is “the nic
est I’ve ever worked in,” she said.
Her research is focused on Ma
rek’s disease virus, a herpes virus
that causes infectious T-cell lym
phomas in chickens. In addition,
since 1997, Morgan and Joan
Burnside, professor of animal
and food sciences, have been
analyzing the chicken genome,
identifying DNA sequences that
represent genes expressed in
chicken tissue and posting them
to an online database to share
with researchers around the
world.
Before coming to UD, Morgan
earned her doctoral degree in bi
ology from Johns Hopkins Uni
versity and completed postdoc
toral work at the University of
California at Berkeley.
In addition to Kaler, members
of the search committee for the
dean’s position were Robert
Baker, Delaware Farm Bureau;
John Boyer, E.I. du Pont Profes
sor of Marine Biochemistry/
Biophysics; Burnside; Judy
Hough-Goldstein, chairperson of
Blueprint For Small Farms
HONESDALE (Wayne Co.)
A dairy farm meeting, “Blueprint
For Success On Small Family
Dairy Farm,” is scheduled for
Thursday, April 25, from 10:30
am. to 2:15 p.m., at the Chuck
and Amy Theobald Farm (River
side Farm), at Creamton, along
Route 170, North of Prompton.
Presentations include: Jeff
Harding, Monsanto Company,
“Farm Management Practices
That Make A Difference,” Dr.
Jeff Hyde, assistant professor, de
partment of ag economics and
rural sociology, Penn State Uni
versity, “A Review of Pennsylva
nia Family Farm Performance
From 1995 to 2000,” Dr. Ken
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entomology and applied ecology;
Tom Ilvento, chairperson of food
and resource economics; Yan Jin,
associate professor of plant and
soil sciences; Ed Kee, instructor
in plant and soil sciences and a
Cooperative Extension specialist;
and Ken Lomax, chairperson of
bioresources engineering.
The College of Agriculture and
Natural Resources includes about
700 undergraduate and 140 grad
uate students and approximately
70 full-time faculty members. It
encompasses the departments of
Animal and Food Sciences, Bio
resources Engineering, Entomol
ogy and Applied Ecology, Food
and Resource Economics and
Plant and Soil Sciences.
Bailey, associate professor, de
partment of ag economics and
rural sociology, Penn State Uni
versity, “Pennsylvania’s Position
in the U.S. Daily Industry!” and
Dr. Tim Snyder, dairy nutrition
ist, Pennfield Feed Corporation,
“Feeding for Production and
Component Yield!”
A light lunch, catered by “The
Red Schoolhouse” (Mike Eldred
and staff), will be served from
about 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. Partic
ipants in this dairy farm meeting
are asked to make their lunch
reservations with the Wayne
County Cooperative Extension
by April 22, by calling (570)
253-5970, ext. 239,
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