Dean Kjerfve welcomes new faculty to the College of Geosciences

College of Geosciences faculty and several members of the Dean's staff gathered Friday morning for a buffet-style breakfast and to welcome recently hired faculty. The third annual new faculty breakfast and presentation was attended by more than forty peoploe from all corners of the college.

"I would like to use this breakfast to acquaint you with some of the new faces of our faculty and recognize some of the changes that have taken place that directly affect us," Dean Björn Kjerfve said as he began his presentation.

Changes in college and university administration were abundant this year. Kjerfve announced that the university is very close to appointing a replacement for Dr. Robert Gates, who resigned as president of Texas A&M last year to become the U.S. Secretary of Defense.

Dr. Luis Cifuentes, formerly Executive Associate Dean and Dean of Research, was appointed to the position of Interim Vice-Provost for the university last June. Kjerfve recommended Cifuentes when he was approached by the Interim Provost earlier in the summer.

"It's great to have one of our own high up in the administration," Kjerfve said. "Clearly he can't look after us all the time, but he can do some things for us, and he will certainly keep the perspective of Geosciences in the upper administration."

Filling Cifuentes' position will be Dr. Ethan Grossman of the Department of Geology and Geophysics.

Three of the college's four departments will welcome new department heads by the end of the calendar year. Already announced department heads include Dr. Andreas Kronenberg for the Department of Geology & Geophysics and Dr. Piers Chapman for Oceanography. The new department head for Atmospheric Sciences has yet to be announced, though Kjerfve said that announcement could come as early as next week.

Five of the college's faculty members promoted this year include: Dr. Andrew Dessler, Dr. Lee Panetta, and Dr. Hongbin Zhan of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Dr. Sarah Bednarz of the Department of Geography, and Dr. Charles Lafon of the Department of Geology & Geophysics.

Eleven new faculty will join the college over the next several months, eight under the Faculty Reinvestment Program and three under the ODASES program.

Five faculty members, Dr. Arnold Bouma, Dr. John Morse, Dr. Ethan Grossman, Dr. Sarah Bednarz and Dr. Doug Sherman were recognized by Dean Kjerfve for being honored with nationally distinguished awards or fellowships over the past year.

Dr. Kjerfve closed his presentation by welcoming the new faculty and expressing his excitement for the coming school year.

"I'm very happy to see all of these faces of excited faculty. I'm looking forward to having a successful year, and I'm hoping that all of you have a successful year as well."
The slideshow can be downloaded by clicking here.

-Justin Bailey