After several years of an overall decline in the number of faculty searches conducted across the college, that trend is beginning to reverse. Over the course of 2019, CALS will bring on a total of 19 new faculty members. In August alone, nine new faculty members started in various departments.

“It’s an exciting time for the college, having so many phenomenal scientists join the CALS community,” says dean Kate VandenBosch. “Much credit goes to the departments, whose strengths in existing programs and innovative visions for the future attracted great candidates. I look forward to welcoming our new faculty as they settle in, and to see them interact within and beyond their departments.”

Funding for college faculty positions comes from retirements or departures and departmental resources. These positions are awarded twice annually through the position funding request process. Other new faculty positions are receiving funding through UW–Madison initiatives including the Cluster Hiring Initiative, the Target of Opportunity Program and shared appointments with other units on campus.

Below are the new CALS faculty members that have started or will start in 2019: (listed in chronological order by start date):

• Kerri Coon, entomology, insect-microbe interactions, including their ability to transmit disease-causing agents to humans and other mammals (Jan.)
• Nathaniel Sharp, genetics, process of genetic mutation (Feb.)
• Judith Simcox, biochemistry, inter-organ communication through lipid-derived metabolites (Feb.)
• Zhou Zhang, biological systems engineering, combining advanced remote sensing with machine learning for agricultural applications (Mar.)
• Joao Dorea, dairy science, precision management and data analytics (May)
• Sarah Rios, community and environmental sociology, environmental health risks and environmental justice (May)
• Renee Rioux, plant pathology, faculty director of the Wisconsin Seed Potato Certification Program (July)
• Zuzana Burivalova, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and forest and wildlife ecology, tropical forest ecology and conservation (Aug.)
• Kaiping Chen, life sciences communication, using data science to examine how digital media and technologies affect political accountability to public well-being (Aug.)
• Matthew Digman, biological systems engineering, machinery systems (Aug.)
• Robert Kirchdoerfer, Institute for Molecular Virology and biochemistry (VCRGE cluster in metastructures of viral infection announced in fall 2018 ), structural and biochemical exploration of RNA virus entry and replication (Aug.)
• Claudia Solis-Lemus, Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery and plant pathology, statistical inference for phylogenetic networks (Aug.)
• Andrew Stevens, agricultural and applied economics, agricultural and food policy, land use and applied econometrics (Aug.)
• Paul Stoy, biological systems engineering, natural resource engineering (Aug.)
• Amy Trowbridge, entomology, forest entomology (Aug.)
• Michael Xenos, communication arts and life sciences communication (transfer of 50% of his appointment from L&S to life sciences communication), effects of new media on political engagement and public deliberation (Aug.)
• Scott Coyle, biochemistry, microscale molecular and cellular machines (Sept.)
• Amy Weeks, biochemistry, spatially-resolved mapping of post-translational modifications, protein engineering and chemoproteomics (Sept.)
• Donna Werling, genetics, genomic investigation in biomedical sciences (Oct.)

And there’s more good news: Four new faculty members are already scheduled to start in early 2020, and the college is currently recruiting for 14 openings across many departments.

As always, new faculty members will be featured individually in eCALS as profile articles become available.