[emailed to SIPS personnel on January 3, 2017]

Hello SIPS Community:

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a great break.

I know everyone is interested in learning who our new director will be – please know that I too am very interested in this information!  The search committee sent their comments to the Dean’s office in mid-December and the process is now in the hands of the Dean. I’m sure we will all learn more by the end of the month.

Next Monday, January 9, Cindy Twardokus will be joining the SIPS administrative staff as the Assistant to the Director.  Her office will be in the SIPS office suite.  Please stop down next week and welcome Cindy.

Our four faculty searches are moving along nicely, and interviews will be starting soon. I have included an update on each below;

• Assistant/Associate Professor of Specialty Crop Systems (Horticulture Section). One of the four candidates took a position elsewhere, so we will be interviewing three candidates starting January 19. Please look for seminar announcements in the next few weeks.
• Assistant/Associate Professor of Plant Metabolic Biochemistry (Plant Biology Section). We will be interviewing three candidates, and the interviews for this position also start January 19. Again, please look for seminar announcements.
• Assistant/Associate Professor of Quantitative Genetics (Plant Breeding and Genetics Section). The committee is working on a short list of candidates, and we hope to begin interviews in mid-late February.
• Assistant/Associate Professor of Plant Biodiversity/Phylodiversity. The committee is working on a short list of candidates, and we hope to begin interviews in late February or early March.

Feel free to contact me with questions, concerns, or good news,

Chris