ITHACA, N.Y. -- Mark Bain, an aquatic biologist and associate professor of natural resources at Cornell University, has been named director of the university's Center for the Environment (CfE). Effective Feb. 24,. Bain succeeds Acting Director Max Pfeffer, professor of rural sociology, who was named associate director of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station in 2001.

Announcing the appointment, Susan A. Henry, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said: "Mark brings to the Center for the Environment a fresh perspective on the integration of research, education and outreach that our college endorses and values. His extensive knowledge of environmental policies and issues are essential for the promotion of a sustainable relationship between the environment and a quality life for people here and around the world."

Bain will be responsible for the strategic direction of CfE, including the promotion of multidisciplinary research in applied environmental science and the application of integrated environmental understanding to issues and problems in the world.

Bain noted, "Cornell has great talent and diverse disciplinary capacity to build environmental knowledge, and we now need to craft interdisciplinary collaborations across a spectrum of fields to meet today's challenges. It is the aim of CfE that Cornell environmental research achievements be communicated to, and recognized by, governments and societies around the world."

The new director earned his bachelor's degree in wildlife resources (1977) from West Virginia University, his master's degree in fisheries science (1980) from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Ph.D. in fisheries biology (1984) from the University of Massachusetts. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1991 as an associate professor in the Department of Natural Resources. He also was appointed assistant leader of the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Cornell.

Bain is a quantitative aquatic biologist and ecosystem scientist who conducts basic research and studies current management issues. His taxonomic specializations are fish and benthic invertebrates, with major system expertise concentrated on lakes, streams and estuaries. His current research examines the structure and development of bay and lagoon ecosystems around Lake Ontario, the behavior and ecology of sturgeon, watershed-scale environmental planning, methods for assessing the biotic status of aquatic and wetland habitats, and impacts on the Hudson River from the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.

He is a member of the American Fisheries Society, Ecological Society of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a trustee of the Central and Western New York Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

Established in 1991, CfE is a shared program of Cornell's colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Architecture, Art and Planning; Arts and Sciences; Engineering; Human Ecology; and Veterinary Medicine; the schools of Hotel Administration, Industrial and Labor Relations and the Johnson Graduate School of Management; the Division of Biological Sciences, the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, the agricultural experiment stations and Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Industrial and Labor Relations Extension.

Related World Wide Web sites: The following site provides additional information on this news release.

o Cornell Center for the Environment: http://environment.cornell.edu