Job Description

JOB TITLE: Chairperson, Plant and Soil Sciences

GENERAL INFORMATION: The Department of Plant and Soil Sciences (PLSC) (https://www.udel.edu/academics/colleges/canr/departments/plant-and-soil-sciences/) is a thriving academic unit consisting of approximately 30 faculty, over 100 undergraduate students, and over 50 graduate students. The Department includes undergraduate programs in Plant Sciences, Sustainable Food Systems, and Landscape Architecture. Graduate programs include Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Plant and Soil Sciences. In addition, several faculty advise students in interdisciplinary graduate programs that are housed in the Graduate College, including Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Microbiology, Water Science and Policy, and Data Science. The Department is known for active and impactful research, teaching, and extension at the national and international levels.   The PLSC department focuses on solving the most pressing global problems, through means such as sustainable food production, natural resource management and restoration, and sustainable landscape architectural practice, to attract a diverse student body. Together with lab staff and students, PLSC faculty have demonstrated leadership in plant physiology, genetics and microbial interactions, environmental soil science, and biogeochemistry. The Department has a dedicated cohort of faculty leading the professional bachelor’s in landscape architecture and PLSC faculty are leaders in extension activities across the region, completing the third rung of a land-grant university. In contributions to this, our faculty lead several multi-state research and extension working groups and large collaborative networks across the US. 

PLSC is part of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR), a dynamic, innovative academic unit with more than 1,100 undergraduate and graduate students and approximately 90 faculty, who are nationally and internationally recognized leaders across multiple disciplines. In addition to PLSC, the College also includes the departments of Animal and Food Sciences, Applied Economics and Statistics, and Entomology and Wildlife Ecology. As the Land Grant arm of the university, CANR combines research, teaching, extension, and community engagement to better serve the state, region, and the world. Located on a 350 acre working farm on the University’s south Newark campus, the college offers a unique hands-on learning environment for students and researchers.

With approximately $25 million in annual research expenditures, CANR currently houses several large, interdisciplinary grants with significant funding from the USDA and NSF. The college boasts strong research teams in the areas of soil and environmental biogeochemistry, plant molecular biology, food microbiology and safety, agroecosystem and environmental management, applied statistics and data analytics, animal nutrition, physiology and health, and climate change and adaptation. Our Extension program is highly impactful, creating programs and scholarly outputs accessed by the entire Mid-Atlantic region.

PLSC faculty members are located in multiple new research facilities including Worrilow Hall and the University’s Science, Technology, and Advanced Research (STAR) building on south campus and the modern Harker Integrated Science and Education Laboratory (ISE Lab) building on the central campus. PLSC faculty members fulfill extension, research, and education missions at the Carvel Research and Education Center in Georgetown, DE (https://www.udel.edu/canr/carvel/). In addition, CANR faculty, staff, and students have access to state-of-the-art core facilities including the Advanced Materials Characterization Laboratory (AMCL) on main campus, the bioinformatics and sequencing center on the STAR campus, and the Soil Testing Laboratory and Fischer greenhouses on the South Campus. PLSC faculty are both Tenure Track (TT) and Continuing Track (CT), with CT faculty often holding higher teaching, service, or extension appointments than TT faculty. Both CT and TT faculty follow a similar path to promotion, earn sabbaticals, have opportunities to pursue research, participate in shared governance, and hold academic leadership positions.

POSITION DESCRIPTION: The college seeks a scholar with proven leadership skills to be the next Chair of the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, uniting the department’s varied academic pursuits. This position provides an exceptional opportunity to lead a vital and productive department with strong research, instructional, and Extension expertise at a research-focused, land-grant university. The Chairperson will facilitate programming in research, teaching, and extension that results in impactful solutions related to grand challenges in plant and soil sciences and the stewardship and design of the built and living environment. The Chairperson’s roles will include leadership, budget management, fundraising, personnel management, and integration of the different disciplines within the Department. The Chairperson will represent the Department and its programs across the University and to external stakeholders, and participate actively in the administration of the College along with the dean, associate deans, and other chairs and unit leaders. The candidate should have strong communication skills, excellent interpersonal skills, understand the land grant mission, be team-oriented, and have a vision of the future of plant and soil sciences and landscape architecture in higher education.

Candidates must have a Ph.D. in plant science, soil science, landscape architecture, or another discipline related to scholarship at the intersection of the natural and built environment and have significant leadership experience. A qualified applicant will have credentials commensurate with those of a tenured Full Professor, including a record of significant contributions to teaching, research and/or Extension along with excellent administrative and interpersonal skills. Experience with the accreditation requirements of professional degree programs, such as a BLA, is desirable but not required. Candidates with these attributes from non-academic backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

POSITION DETAILS: The position will be a 9-month academic-year appointment with 1 month of summer salary while serving as chairperson. The expected workload is 85% administration with the remaining 15% workload to contribute meaningfully to the research, teaching, and/or Extension programs in the department. The initial department chair appointment is for 5 years, with 5 year reappointments contingent upon departmental reviews. 

SALARY AND BENEFITS:  Compensation packages are competitive and commensurate with experience and qualifications.

TO APPLY: Review of applications will begin on January 6, 2025, and will continue until the position is filled. Applicants must upload a letter of application, including a statement describing their leadership philosophy, why they would be a good fit for this position, and their approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Applicants should also provide contact information for three references and a curriculum vitae as a single pdf document through the online application system. Candidate’s applications will not be shared beyond the search committee until they are selected to move beyond the initial screening phase. Applicants will be notified before references are contacted. Contact Dr. Tanya Gressley, Search Committee Chair, at [email protected] for more information.

Job Tags

Similar Jobs