October 23, 2003
Dr. Robert
E. Whitson has been named deputy director of the Texas
Agricultural Experiment Station, a post he has held on an
interim basis since August.
"Bob has
been doing an excellent job, and he's proven to be a valuable
member of our leadership team," said Dr. Ed Hiler, who announced
the appointment Wednesday. "He's been well received by our
research faculty and by our many friends and clients throughout
the state."
Hiler is
vice chancellor and dean of the College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences and remains director of the Experiment Station. Whitson
will handle day-to-day operations for the Experiment Station,
the state's major agricultural research arm and an agency of The
Texas A&M University System.
Whitson
succeeds Dr. Charles Scifres, who died unexpectedly in July.
"I am
pleased to have the opportunity to work with both internal and
external stakeholders in aggressively moving the Experiment
Station's statewide research agenda forward," Whitson said. "The
agency will soon be finalizing our Science Management Roadmap,
which will identify priority research areas and focus our
efforts for the future."
The
Experiment Station supports the work of more than 450 scientists
involved in research on the Texas A&M University campus and some
two dozen sites around the state.
For the
last 10 years, Whitson has been professor and head of the
university's department of rangeland ecology and management.
Working with the faculty, Whitson led the department's
decade-long strategic planning efforts, which have helped focus
research needs on the most pressing issues related to rangeland
conservation and use.
Whitson
said that his experience in expanding the department's research
capabilities should help him work to "focus the agency's
research programs to meet the needs of our constituencies."
Whitson,
61, grew up in the Panhandle town of Spearman, earned two
degrees from Texas Tech University and completed his doctorate
in agricultural economics at Texas A&M in 1974.
He taught
agricultural economics and range science at Texas A&M from 1974
to 1981, then worked for 12 years in the trust division of Frost
National Bank in San Antonio, where he rose to the rank of
senior vice president.
Whitson
returned to Texas A&M in 1993 to head of the rangeland
department.
He and his
wife, Linda, reside in College Station, and have two daughters,
Cristie and Susan, who are married and live in San Antonio.
Writer: Dave Mayes, (979) 845-2803;
d-mayes@tamu.edu |