Theodore L. Hullar, the biochemist who served as chancellor of the University of California at Davis and at Riverside in the 1980s and '90s, as well as director of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station in the 1980s, will return to Ithaca as director of the Cornell Center for the Environment (CfE).

Hullar's appointment, which is effective Sept. 15, is subject to approval of the Cornell University Board of Trustees.

"We are delighted to have Ted Hullar return to Cornell and to pick up the reins of leadership at the center," said Norman R. Scott, Cornell vice president for research and advanced studies. "He brings tremendous expertise in environmental issues and a powerhouse of energy and enthusiasm that will involve the faculty in issues that affect all of us."

Daryl B. Lund, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and chair of the CfE Governing Board, commented: "The governing board is enthusiastically looking forward to the interdisciplinary strength that Ted brings to the position of director. Issues concerning the environment and natural resources require strength and cooperation across the disciplines of the university." The CfE Governing Board consists of deans of the colleges at Cornell.

Hullar succeeds Walter R. Lynn, the professor of civil and environmental engineering who directed the center since March, 1996.

CfE is the research, teaching and outreach unit of the university that incorporates four institutionally based programs (Institute for Resource Information Systems, Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology, Cornell Waste Management Institute and the Water Resources Institute) as well as several initiatives, including the Program on Biogeochemistry, the Work and Environment Initiative, and the Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors in New York State. More than 170 faculty and staff members from every college at Cornell participate in CfE programs.

Educated at the University of Minnesota, where he earned B.S. (1957) and Ph.D. (1963) degrees, Hullar joined the State University at Buffalo faculty in 1964. He served as environmental quality commissioner for Erie County, N.Y., (1974-75) and as deputy commissioner for programs and research at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (1975-79). Hullar joined the natural resources faculty at Cornell in 1979; was the associate director (1979-81) and director (1981-84) of the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station; and was instrumental in establishing two key programs in what was then called the Center for Environmental Research: the Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology and the EPA-Ecosystems Research Center.

At the University of California at Riverside, Hullar was executive vice chancellor (1984-85) and chancellor (1985-87). He was chancellor of the University of California at Davis (1987-94), while teaching toxicology and serving as coordinator of the University of California Economic Development Initiative (1993-94). At present Hullar is a professor of environmental toxicology at Davis as well as co-director of the Risk Science Program and executive director of the University of California's Sierra Nevada Center.

Hullar's scholarly and organizational interests include innovative institutional approaches for improving university-society relationships; technology transfer and development and regional economic development; policies and practice for environmental research and application; ecosystem management; and water management.