Cornell Provost Biddy Martin has announced the reappointment of Susan A. Henry as the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences in Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), for a five-year term, beginning July 1, 2005.

"Dean Henry has made significant contributions to the vitality and the academic quality of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and is a valued member of the university's academic leadership," Martin said. "As an accomplished scientist and an able administrator, she has set high standards for research, teaching and outreach, and has successfully built strong support for her academic programs. I appreciate her intelligence, dedication and humor."

Henry said, "I look forward to serving a second term in a position I find so challenging and satisfying. I am continually impressed by the excellence of our faculty, students and staff and the level of enthusiasm of our alumni and stakeholders. And I remain dedicated to supporting the college's leadership role in activities relating to the land grant mission, environmental and social sciences and the new life sciences."

Under Henry's leadership, CALS has received accreditation for its undergraduate business program, established new majors in information sciences, environmental engineering and the science of natural and environmental systems, as well as new programs in viticulture and enology and in agricultural science. For each of the last four years, CALS has continued the pace of faculty hires and balanced the budget in the face of declining state support. During the same period, applications and contributions have increased, academic priorities have been redefined, the vision and mission rearticulated and administrative services streamlined.

Henry, who became dean in July 2000, maintains an active research program in molecular genetics, using yeast as a model system. She is the 12th dean of CALS, which is the second-largest college at Cornell.

Programs at CALS cover education, research, and extension in basic and applied natural and social sciences, including plant, animal, environmental and agricultural sciences, biological engineering, genetics, molecular biology, entomology, evolutionary biology, ecology, natural resources, international agriculture, information sciences, bioinformatics, education, development sociology and applied economics.

Henry served as the dean of Mellon College of Science at Carnegie Mellon University from 1991 to 2000. She joined Carnegie Mellon in 1987 as a professor in the department of biological sciences and was head of that department from 1987 until 1991. Before 1987 she was a professor of genetics and molecular biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She received her B.S. in zoology from the University of Maryland in 1968 and her Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1971.

Henry received a Merit Award from the National Institutes of Health in 1991 and 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 is an associate editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and serves on the board of directors of Agrium, Inc.