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UF Preeminence moving forward with Board of Trustees tenure approval of new faculty hires

December 5, 2014

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Twelve nationally recognized professors are joining the University of Florida faculty, furthering UF’s push toward becoming a top public university.

Seven of the 12 hires specialize in focus areas of UF Preeminence, the university’s vision to become an international leader in more than two dozen fields including health, agriculture, computing and education.

The University of Florida Board of Trustees on Friday approved a recommendation from UF chairs and deans that all of the hires be granted tenure upon appointment.

Six of the hires will work in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences; two in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; two in the College of Nursing; one in the College of Pharmacy; and one in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

“All 12 of these hires are outstanding in their areas of expertise,” said Joe Glover, UF Provost and Senior Vice President. “We are thrilled for the opportunity to grant tenure to them immediately.”   

The seven faculty members who will specialize in UF Preeminence areas of focus are:

  • James L. Anderson, leader of the Global Program on Fisheries and the Alliance of Responsible Fishing at the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C., who will join the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences as a professor in the Department of Food and Resource Economics; his UF Preeminence area of focus will be the Food Systems Hub.
  • Morgan Ernest, associate professor in the Department of Biology and the Ecology Center at Utah State University, who will join the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences as an associate professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation; her UF Preeminence area of focus will be Biodiversity.
  • Karen Garrett, professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at Kansas State University, who will join the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences as a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology; her UF Preeminence area of focus will be the Food Systems Hub.
  • Ethan P. White, associate professor in the Department of Biology at Utah State University, who will join the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences as an associate professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation; his UF Preeminence area of focus will be Informatics for Life Sciences.
  • George Michailidis, professor in statistics in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, who will join the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences as a professor in the Department of Statistics; his UF Preeminence area of focus will be the Informatics Institute, which he will direct.
  • Jane V. Aldrich, a professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas, who will join the UF College of Pharmacy as a professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry; her UF Preeminence area of focus will be Drug Discovery and Development.
  • Christopher Vulpe, a professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology in the College of Natural Resources at the University of California Berkeley, who will join the UF College of Veterinary Medicine as a professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences; his UF Preeminence area of focus will be the One Health Initiative.

These seven new hires bring the total number of faculty brought to the campus to advance UF Preeminence to 61. UF ultimately will hire more than 120 professors and researchers to support this initiative, utilizing nearly $1 billion in private and state funding.

All of the faculty members approved Friday by the UF Board of Trustees meet the criteria set forth in the university’s tenure policy and have been recommended by UF president Bernie Machen to receive tenure.

For details on UF Preeminence, visit ufpreeminence.org.