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Message from the Dean

Susan A. Henry
The Ronald P. Lynch
Dean of Agriculture
and Life Sciences

Lions and lambs notwithstanding, March has been a bull month for CALS. We got the very exciting news on March 9 that our Undergraduate Business Program jumped to number 10 in Business Week’s 2007 rankings of such programs — a jump of four places since it was first ranked in 2003. Our UBP program was also one of four featured in the Business Week article on the rankings, which appears in the March 19 issue. The article is online. The complete list of rankings is also available.

As if that were not excitement enough, our illustrious program in food science has been ranked first in the nation in the 2006 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index. The full account is available in the Chronicle of Higher Education online.

We began the month of March with a reception celebrating the career of CALS alumnus A. Colin McClung, M.S. ’49, Ph.D. ’50, a 2006 World Food Prize laureate. Dr. McClung, a soil scientist who spent his career at North Carolina State University, helped transform the Cerrado, a vast, infertile swath of Brazil, into highly productive agricultural land in the 1950s. He is the third CALS alumnus — with Pedro Sanchez ’62, M.S. ’64, Ph.D. ’68, and John Niederhauser ’39, Ph.D. ’43 — to win the World Food Prize. CALS faculty member Per Pinstrup-Andersen, the H. E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition, and Public Policy, won the prize in 2001. All of these outstanding Cornellians are testimony to our college’s great legacy in international agriculture and sustainable development. See photos from the reception.

Also on March 1, we celebrated the 125th anniversary of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES), our campus at Geneva and home to many leading agricultural advancements. The NYSAES began operation on March 1, 1882, and became part of Cornell University in 1923. The Geneva experiment station has gained national preeminence as the center for research in New York on the production, protection, and utilization of fruit and vegetable crops, partnering with the agricultural, food, and bio-based industries, which together generate many billions of dollars for the New York state economy. Please visit http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hp/125years/ for more information about upcoming events, particularly their big Open House on September 15. See photos from the March 1 celebration.

The Ides of March found us in New York City celebrating the success of New York wines with more than 200 Cornell alumni and friends at our 10th annual Enology and Viticulture Gala. With John Dyson ’65 as master of ceremonies, Peter Saltonstall ’75 of King Ferry Winery representing the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, and a Christie’s auctioneer to drive up the bidding on cases of wine, weekend getaways, and other donated delights, the benefit for our Enology and Viticulture Program was a sparkling success. See a photo and read more about the event.

In closing, I would like to raise a toast to Bill Fry for his exceptional service to the College as senior associate dean and welcome our new co-senior associate deans, Barbara Knuth and Jan Nyrop, to Roberts Hall. Read more on their appointment.

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