UF/IFAS Research Dean To Leave

John Hayes, chairman of the University of Florida’s wildlife ecology and conservation department, has been appointed interim dean for research for the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences by Jack Payne, UF senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources.

Hayes takes the post July 1 and replaces Mark McLellan, IFAS research dean since July 2005.

McLellan will leave UF to be vice president for research and dean of the school of graduate studies at Utah State University in Logan.

McLellan said he is proud of his accomplishments at UF, which include working to establish the Florida Climate Institute and the Carbon Resources Science Center, as well as creating an internal competitive grant program for cutting-edge research and a new approach to optimize the licensing of UF/IFAS cultivar releases.

As interim dean, Hayes also will be director of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, which encompasses nearly 1,000 faculty, 17 disciplines, and 13 research and education centers throughout the state.

Hayes, a UF faculty member and WEC chairman since 2006, will promote continued advancements in IFAS research. He also will remain as director of the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station, a 9,100-acre conservation research center in Putnam County.

As WEC chairman, Hayes has steered the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station toward becoming a globally significant research facility and helped partner the station with the National Ecological Observatory Network, a National Science Foundation-funded program to evaluate the nation’s environmental pulse over the next three decades.

Hayes is president-elect of the National Association of University Fish and Wildlife Programs, has published 90 technical publications and popular articles and has generated $6.5 million in grants and contracts to support his research.

Hayes said he plans to advance the strategic direction of IFAS research programs, strengthen partnerships between IFAS stakeholders, increase the quality of research facilities and integrate the research, teaching and extension missions of IFAS.

Source: UF/IFAS news release