Forum scheduled for vice president for Research candidate

Laura Huenneke, dean of NAU’s College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, will be meeting with individuals and departments on campus next week as she interviews for the position of vice president for Research.

An open, campuswide forum will give employees and students an opportunity to meet with Huenneke from 1:30-2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15, in room 206 of the Babbitt Administrative Center, building 51.

Huenneke came to NAU in 2003 to become dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of biological sciences. In 2004 she assumed her current role in the newly restructured College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, which includes 325 faculty and staff in 11 academic departments and eight research/outreach centers.

Huenneke received her A.B. in biological sciences from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology from Cornell University. She carried out postdoctoral research in plant community dynamics at Savannah River Ecology Laboratory in South Carolina and at Stanford University before beginning a faculty position at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. During 16 years at NMSU, she rose through the ranks to become Regents’ Professor and served five years as department chair in biology.

Her research interests pertain to the relationship between biological diversity and ecosystem structure and function. Huenneke is also committed to the “effective communication of scientific and ecological understanding to the public, to K-12 educators and students, and to policy-makers.”