PULLMAN Two of the four candidates for the position of provost and executive vice president of Washington State University are scheduled to visit the university May 5-7.
Eric James Barron, dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences and Jackson Chair in Earth Systems Science at the University of Texas Austin, is scheduled to visit May 5-6. He will appear at an open forum at 3 p.m. May 5 in Room T-101 of the Food Sciences and Human Nutrition Building on the Pullman campus.
Steven L. Hoch, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, is scheduled to visit May 6-7. He is scheduled to attend an open forum at 3 p.m. May 6 at T-101.
Both open forums will be simulcast to the WSU campuses at Spokane, Vancouver and the Tri-Cities. Both candidates also will hold a series of meetings with members of the search committee and various campus groups during their visits.
Two other candidates are scheduled to visit the following week. Their schedules will be announced when they are finalized.
Barron earned his bachelor’s degree in geology from Florida State University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in oceanography, both from the University of Miami. He has worked as an associate professor at the University of Miami, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University and dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. He has been dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences since 2006.
He has served as a member of the editorial board of a number of publications, including Geology, Geotimes and Consequences and was editor of Global and Planetary Change from 1988-1996. He was chair of the NASA Senior Review for the Earth Sciences in 2005 and chair of the National Science Foundation Earth System History Review Panel in 2006, Barron was an American Association for the Advancement of Sciences fellow in 2004.
Hoch earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Trinity College in Connecticut and his master’s and doctoral degrees in history from Princeton. He also studied at L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and at Moscow State University. He was a lecturer in history at Trinity, an assistant and associate professor of history at Drew and an assistant, associate and full professor of history at the University of Iowa. He served as associate provost for academic programs and dean of international programs at the University of Iowa before assuming the deanship at the University of Kentucky in 2003.
Hoch’s research focuses on modern Russian history, European agrarian history and historical demography. He has written two books and a number of articles on Russian history and the nation’s socioeconomic conditions. From 1997-99, he received a U.S. Department of Education grant for $825,000 to establish a National Resource Center in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Iowa.
Warwick Bayly, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, is chairing the provost search committee. Robert Bates, who has served as the university’s academic leader for the past six years, announced in January that he would be stepping down from the position of provost and executive vice president effective July 1.
Candidate CVs and schedules will be made available at the provost search Web site: https://www.provost-execvp-search.wsu.edu/
Candidate information:
Barron: https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/about/leaders/barron.html
Hoch: https://www.as.uky.edu/about/Pages/DeansMessage.aspx
Barron: https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/about/leaders/barron.html
Hoch: https://www.as.uky.edu/about/Pages/DeansMessage.aspx
