Who will be the next Hans Bethe, A.R. Ammons or Barbara McClintock? Over the next decade, Cornell will lose an unprecedented number of its distinguished senior scholars to retirement. The university must begin now to hire and nurture their replacements.

A sampling of this challenge was presented Oct. 29 by Michael I. Kotlikoff, the Austin O. Hooey Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, and G. Peter Lepage, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of physics, at a forum in Statler Ballroom.

"We are hiring our future reputation," Lepage said.

About half of the current faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences is made up of baby boomers approaching retirement, Lepage said. The college currently has the oldest faculty in its history, he said, with about 20 percent of faculty members already over 65 years of age. Over the next five years, he added, we will see the most retirements in 150 years.

Replacing the retirees is not just a matter of hiring someone new each time a professor leaves, he explained. He plans to make five to seven "strategic prehires" each year, giving young faculty a few years to grow in experience and reputation before the people they are replacing leave. That means double salaries, and that, he said, is why the university has launched the Faculty Renewal Sesquicentennial Challenge to raise $100 million ($20 million a year for five years) in "bridging funds."

Things are much the same in the College of Veterinary Medicine, Kotlikoff said, but added that his hiring will also be aimed to fulfill the college's strategic plan, which is to position the college not only as an outstanding school but also as a leader in biomedical research, and to transition from being a national leader in animal health to a world leader.

Hiring must also maintain diversity in the faculty overall and in leadership, Kotlikoff said. By way of illustration he displayed photos of six department chairs in 2007 -- all white men -- noting, "Kind of a common theme there." In another set of photos, he presented the 2010 chairs, who include three women and an African-American man. The distribution is appropriate, he noted, since 75 percent of current veterinary students are women (a national trend in the field).

The development of future leadership must be part of everyone's hiring plans, Lepage noted, because there is an "age gap" in the current faculty between 45 and 55 -- the group from which future chairs and other leaders will develop.

What the two deans presented is typical of the entire university, Lepage said, although in some of the smaller colleges the age distribution may be skewed one way or another.

Ithaca is a "destination of choice" for many students and scholars, Kotlikoff concluded. "Our faculty is the reason people come," he said. "That's why it's urgent to maintain that faculty."

"It's scary to have your most famous people leave," said Lepage, "but it's also a tremendous opportunity."