Vayda Named New Dean for Bumpers College, Associate Vice President of Division of Agriculture

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Michael Vayda

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. –The University of Arkansas has selected Michael Vayda to serve as dean of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences and associate vice president for academic programs in the Division of Agriculture. Provost Sharon Gaber announced the decision and said that Vayda will assume his duties July 1.

“Agriculture is such an essential part of the Arkansas economy, and Bumpers College is absolutely essential to the future development of our state,” said Milo J. Shult, vice president for agriculture in the University of Arkansas System. “I am very pleased that we have someone of Dr. Vayda’s stature to lead the college at this critical time.”

Vayda currently serves as the associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Vermont and associate director of the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station.

“Michael Vayda has the experience and the energy to continue moving Bumpers College forward,” said Gaber. “His academic credentials are as strong as his record of service in agriculture.”

Vayda has served as chair of the Northeast Regional Research Association Experiment Station Directors, executive committee member of the University of Vermont’s “Ag Innovations Initiative,” and president of the Maine Center of Innovation in Biotechnology. He was named a Kellogg Foundation Fellow in the Food Systems Leadership Institute and received the College of Natural Sciences Forestry and Agriculture Outstanding Public Service award.

He has held faculty and administrative appointments at the University of Maine and the University of Vermont, as well as visiting appointments at Princeton University, Northeastern University and Palmer Station in Antarctica.

He holds a doctoral degree in molecular biology and a Master of Arts in biochemical sciences from Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and Bachelor of Arts in zoology from the University of New Hampshire. He held a post-doctoral appointment at the University of California, Berkeley, in plant molecular genetics.

“Mike Vayda has a strong background in the science and technology that are increasingly important in the field of agriculture,” said Chancellor G. David Gearhart. “His record as a researcher is excellent, and he is highly regarded as a scientist, as well as an administrator. He will provide an energizing, catalytic force for Bumpers College.”