New Dean for College of Life Sciences and Agriculture
By Beth Potier, Media Relations
February 14, 2007
Thomas Brady, division director at the National Science Foundation and
a professor of biology at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP),
has been selected as dean of UNH’s College of Life Sciences and
Agriculture (COLSA). He will begin as dean July 1 and, like other UNH
deans, will serve a five-year, renewable appointment.
“I am thrilled that Tom Brady has accepted our offer to lead COLSA
into its next stage of development,” said Provost Bruce Mallory. “Dr.
Brady brings outstanding experience and qualifications to the position
of dean, based on his highly successful leadership roles in the National
Science Foundation and the University of Texas. He will have my full
support to implement the college’s strategic plan and to direct
the reorganization process that will soon be presented to the Board of
Trustees. The search committee developed an exceptional pool of outstanding
candidates; it was obvious to me that Dr. Brady was the cream of the
crop.”
As division director of Integrative Organismal Biology for the National
Science Foundation (NSF) since 2004, Brady has been responsible for establishing
and implementing scientific and outreach priorities for the division,
which funds awards in neuroscience, developmental biology, behavioral
biology, plant and animal physiology, plant-biotic interactions and physiological
ecology. With a budget of just over $100 million, the division reviews
approximately 1,500 proposals and awards 250 new grants per year.
“This is a spectacular opportunity. I believe that COLSA can be
a jewel in the university’s crown and a leading college of life
science and agriculture in the nation,” said Brady. “COLSA
has developed a very forward-looking strategic plan with a visionary
outlook of where the college should go. I think that integrating agriculture
across the college, as the plan recommends, is right on the mark.”
Prior to accepting the visiting appointment to NSF, Brady was dean of
the College of Science at the University of Texas at El Paso from 1997 – 2004.
During his tenure, the college doubled its research grants portfolio
and established a series of new undergraduate and graduate degrees, all
interdisciplinary.
From 1997–2000, Brady was also director of UTEP’s Indio
Mountains Research Station, responsible for increasing utilization of
a 35,000-acre pristine Chihuahan Desert research station. Brady is a
developmental biologist whose research has concerned understanding genes
that regulate early embryonic development, working in plants and fruit
flies.
Brady held earlier appointments at NSF, serving as director for several
divisions, including the Division of Environmental Biology and Division
of Integrative Biology and Neuroscience between 1990 and 1997. From 1984 – 1992,
he was Stone Professor of Biology at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.,
where he also served as chair of the Department of Biological Sciences.
He is a native New Englander, born in Springfield, Mass., with family
in the Boston area.
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