Cornell University's New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has named William E. Fry, professor of plant pathology, as the college's senior associate dean. The appointment will take effect in June.

Fry succeeds associate dean Brian Chabot, who will return to teaching. Chabot, a faculty member of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, will establish a new research program in agricultural ecosystems and invasive plant species, in addition to teaching courses on the environment.

Fry graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, with high honors, from Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Neb., in 1966. He earned his doctorate in plant pathology from Cornell in 1970. Fry became an assistant professor in the biology department at Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, Conn., in 1970. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1971 as an assistant professor of plant pathology and became an associate professor in 1977 and a professor in 1984. He chaired Cornell's plant pathology department from 1981 to 1995.

Fry has been a member of the American Phytopathological Society, a group devoted to the study of plant pathology, for more than 30 years, and he was elected a fellow in 1990. In 1995-96, he served as president of the society. He currently is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the British Society of Plant Pathologists and the Potato Association of America.

Fry will continue to conduct research into potato late blight. For nearly his entire professional career, he has been tracking the virulent Phytophthora infestans , the fungal-like pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine.