Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings announced today (April 27) that he will submit to the Executive Committee of the Cornell Board of Trustees his nomination of Susan A. Henry, dean of the Mellon College of Science at Carnegie Mellon University, as the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of Cornell's New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

"Susan Henry is a superb scientist and proven dean," Rawlings said. "She has a clear vision for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the strong support of its faculty. I am confident that she will be a first-rate leader on campus and in the state of New York."

Henry expressed enthusiasm on her nomination: "I am very excited and honored to be joining Cornell University as the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences," Henry said. "I look forward to working not only with students, faculty and staff at Cornell, but with the agricultural community throughout New York state to strengthen the state's leading role in the food and agriculture industry. There are unprecedented opportunities in agriculture and the life sciences today, and there is no question that the college is poised to lead the way, statewide, nationally and internationally. I look forward to joining all my new colleagues to begin this important work."

Henry has been dean of the Mellon College of Science at Carnegie Mellon since 1991. She will succeed Daryl B. Lund on July 1 as the 12th dean in the 132-year history of Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS).

As dean, Henry will oversee the second-largest college at Cornell. CALS has approximately 400 faculty members and an undergraduate enrollment of more than 3,100 students. There are approximately 1,000 graduate students in the college, which has an annual budget of more than $173 million, covering such areas as plant science, agricultural economics, atmospheric science, agronomy, entomology, fruit and vegetable science, ornamental horticulture, fundamental biological sciences and biotechnology.

"The participation of CALS faculty, staff, alumni and external constituents was critical to the success of the search, and I am confident they will be well-served by the appointment," said Biddy Martin, senior associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Cornell provost-elect. "Susan Henry will provide strong intellectual leadership for the college and the university as a whole. I am delighted that she has accepted the position and look forward to working with someone who brings to her work not only vision and integrity but a distinguished record in research, ample administrative experience and a strong commitment to the university's land-grant mission."

Henry joined Carnegie Mellon in 1987 as a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and was head of that department from 1987 to 1991. Before that she was a professor of genetics and molecular biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1972 to 1987 and director of the Sue Golding Graduate Division at the college from 1983 to 1987. She was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at Rosentiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, Brandeis University, from 1971 to 1972, a National Science Foundation graduate fellow, Department of Genetics, University of California, Berkeley, from 1968 to 1971; and a National Science Foundation undergraduate research fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Maryland, from 1965 to 1968. She was a visiting professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard University Medical School in 1982.

Henry was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 1993 and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1994. She serves as a member of the Committee on Election to Fellowship, American Academy of Microbiology, and a member of the Board of Governors Nominating Committee, American Academy of Microbiology.

She received her Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1971 and her B.S. in zoology from the University of Maryland in 1968, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.