Benjamin Z. Houlton has been appointed to a second term as the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Interim Provost John Siliciano announced Oct. 24.

The Cornell Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee voted Oct. 14 to approve a new five-year term, effective July 1, 2025. Houlton began his tenure as dean Oct. 1, 2020. He is also professor in the departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Global Development.

“Ben’s strategic vision for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has been instrumental in addressing the unique challenges of our time for the health of people and the planet,” Siliciano said. “His leadership has advanced Cornell’s mission as a land-grant university to disseminate groundbreaking research across New York state and the world, while also increasing funding and faculty hires, and modernizing undergraduate education so students are prepared to address 21st-century issues.”

CALS, Cornell’s second-largest college, encompasses 631 faculty members (290 tenure-track and 341 research, teaching and extension), 16 academic departments and two schools. It has more than 4,000 undergraduate students and 950 graduate students, and about 1,300 core staff, with an annual operating budget, including research expenditures, in excess of $500 million. The college also has a global presence with satellite facilities and projects in 61 countries, reflecting its mission as land-grant to the world.

“Gratitude, humility and respect for the institution are the main things that come to mind when I think about this reappointment,” Houlton said. “I am profoundly committed to ensuring that CALS functions as a collaborative nexus for Cornell’s initiatives and extends its impact to the state of New York and the global community by innovating new, practical solutions to the grand challenges of our time.” 

Houlton has been instrumental in launching CALS’ Roadmap to 2050 strategic vision, which enlists more than 700 faculty, staff, students, alumni and benefactors to foster a forward-focused outlook. The roadmap is centered around the idea of “moonshot thinking,” which aims to inspire the boldest ideas to solve seemingly intractable global issues and power new scientific breakthroughs. Moonshots have been prioritized around redesigning 21st-century agrifood systems, pioneering life-science breakthroughs, synthetic biology and holistic climate solutions.

Some key accomplishments during Houlton’s first term – which he stresses have been team-driven – include:

• Historic levels of faculty hiring, including 71 new tenure-track faculty hired since fiscal year (FY) 2021. CALS has 32 active searches currently open, in part to counter retirements.
• $275 million for FY ’23 in CALS research expenditures marked an all-time high (FY ’24 numbers are not available yet) and a new Office of Research and Innovation was launched to inspire more intellectual property, patents and startups in the college.
• “To Do the Greatest Good” fundraising campaign has realized year-over-year gains that have more than doubled the baseline rate of annual giving in CALS over the campaign period, with $178 million raised since FY ’21. Endowed professorships have grown to 10% of faculty. “My goal is to get that up to 20%,” Houlton said.
• Serving as founding co-chair since 2022 of the 2030 Project: A Cornell Climate Initiative, which seeks to drive collaborative solutions for real-world impact across all Cornell colleges and professional schools. The project has raised more than $200 million in philanthropy.

Looking forward, a new undergraduate curriculum, developed in the last few years, will launch in 2025. With a premium placed on learning-based outcomes and objectives, all students will be required to participate in active engagement, including entrepreneurship; take classes in agriculture, nutrition or the food system, since how food is grown and distributed is central to humanity’s well-being, and broadly in the arena of sustainability challenges; and take advantage of opportunities in AI and machine learning applications, to develop critical thinking about the nature of evidence and diverse viewpoints.

Also, CALS faculty have been developing a new school, which aims to bridge fields of global sustainable development, and natural resources and the environment.

In terms of the global challenges ahead, Houlton believes the agrifood system is the most powerful weapon in the battle against climate change, as new technologies and innovations can radically reduce emissions and support human health and well-being.

“Along with reducing emissions, we must assist the world in adapting to weather extremes and creating true resilience,” he said. Tackling these issues will encompass the full arsenal of CALS expertise, including the agricultural, life, social and environmental sciences. Houlton also notes the need for transdisciplinary solutions to preserve Earth's biodiversity, which he views as the environmental endowment upon which future bio-based innovations hinge. 

“New York is our home base of operations, and it’s couched in both global challenges and new economic opportunities for our region,” he said. 

Houlton’s own research revolves around cultivating diverse partnerships with farmers, industry, policymakers and scientists to find solutions for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, while also improving food production. A current project involves experiments across 200 acres in New York, California and New Brunswick, examining how rock dust, a byproduct of mining operations, can be amended to soils to absorb carbon dioxide while improving soil health. He is also exploring the use of AI for predictive modeling and sustainability to drive trustworthy carbon payments for growers and producers. 

Houlton earned a bachelor’s degree in water chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point (1998); a master’s degree in environmental engineering from Syracuse University (2000); and a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University (2005). After a two-year stint as a postdoctoral scholar in global ecology at the Carnegie Institute of Science and Biological Sciences Department at Stanford University, he joined the faculty at the University of California, Davis (2007), until he was selected to serve as CALS dean in 2020. 

His many honors include an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Young Investigator Award (2008) and an NSF-CAREER award (2012-17). He was named by City and State New York to The Agriculture Power 50 (2021) and was appointed as a director of the State University of New York Research Foundation (2023).