Iowa State University

Inside Iowa State
November 20, 1998

LAS dean candidate visits begin this month

by Anne Dolan

Five finalists have been announced in the search for a new dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. They are Lynne Billard, University of Georgia, Athens; John Dobson, Iowa State; Peter Rabideau, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Leon Radziemski, Washington State University, Pullman; and Joseph Templeton, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

In the coming weeks, the finalists will visit campus for two- day interviews. Their visits include a public open forum in the Memorial Union, at which each will speak on the role of a liberal arts and sciences college at a land-grant university. The open forums will begin at 4:10 p.m. on these dates:

During a second public forum, in 107 Lab of Mechanics, each candidate will respond to questions on campus diversity. The forums will be held:

Summaries of the candidates appear here. For a more complete review of each finalist's experience and qualifications, visit: www.iastate. edu/news/releases/98/las11.18.html.

Lynne Billard has been a faculty member at the University of Georgia since 1980, serving as head of the statistics department from 1980 to 1989. From 1975 to 1978, she was on the faculty at Florida State University, Tallahassee.

Billard was elected a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the American Statistical Association (ASA). Her research interests include stochastic processes, with an emphasis on model building; sequential analysis, with an emphasis on hypothesis testing; and epidemic theory, including AIDS research. She chaired ASA's Committee on AIDS in 1992.

An ISU faculty member since 1968, John Dobson has served as interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences since July 1. He served as intern assistant dean of the College of Sciences and Humanities from 1987 to 1988, assistant dean of the Graduate College from 1988 to 1991, assistant vice provost for research and advanced studies from 1990 to 1991, and interim vice provost for research and interim dean of the Graduate College from 1991 to 1992. Since 1991, he has served as associate vice provost for research and associate dean of the Graduate College.

Dobson has written five books, most recently on the foreign policy of President William McKinley. Other research interests include U.S. trade and tariffs, and, more recently, international student exchange programs.

Peter Rabideau has served as dean of the College of Basic Sciences at Louisiana State since 1990. As dean, he initiated the college's first fund-raising efforts and a center for excellence in science teaching. He spent 20 years on the chemistry faculty at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, including two years as acting department chair and five as department chair.

His current research program is the synthesis and chemistry of bowl-shaped hydrocarbons, "buckybowls."

Rabideau was elected a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1997.

Leon Radziemski has served as College of Sciences dean and professor of physics at Washington State since 1990. Previously, he was at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, serving five years as chair of the physics department and two as associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the research center. From 1967 to 1983, he was a staff physicist and project manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory (U.S. Department of Energy). There, his projects included atomic, laser and plasma spectroscopy, and laser isotope separation, among others.

Radziemski also is interested in reforming science education, including interdisciplinary efforts.

He is a fellow of the Laser Institute of America, the Optical Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Professor of chemistry Joseph Templeton joined the North Carolina faculty in 1976, after receiving a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Iowa State in 1975. He served as chemistry department chair for five years, acting associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for two years and senior associate dean for sciences in that same college for a year.

His current research projects address reactions of coordinated ligands, and generating more Ph.D.s in applied areas of chemistry.

Templeton received the National Science Foundation's Creativity Extension Award in 1995.

Former LAS dean Elizabeth Hoffman left Iowa State in October 1997. Richard Hoffmann, who also has left ISU, served as interim dean from August 1997 to June 1998.

Richard Ross, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, is chair of the search committee.

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