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University of Hawai'i |
(808) 956-8856 Telephone |
For Immediate Release: |
December 4, 2000 |
Contact: Rose Tseng, Chancellor, UH Hilo (808) 974-7444 Alyson Kakugawa-Leong, Office of University Relations, UH Hilo (808)
974-7642
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| Michael A. Collier to head UH Hilo College of Agriculture,
Forestry and Natural Resource Management |
A former researcher at UH Hilo's College of Agriculture will return to the university next month to assume the position of dean at the college. The appointment of Dr. Michael A. Collier, who was at the Hilo campus in the mid-1970s, was approved by UH Regents at the Board's meeting on Maui last month.
"We are so pleased to have someone of Dr. Collier's stature and experience join our administration," said UH Hilo Chancellor Rose Tseng. "The search committee reviewed applications from a number of well-qualified candidates from across the country, and they reserved their highest praise for Dean Collier. We're looking forward to having him back on campus to lead the Ag College that is so central to our mission on the Big Island."
Collier is presently an adjunct professor of pathology and orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC). Collier is also an affiliate professor with the Hilo campus agriculture program, where early in his career he was an assistant researcher. He brings to the College - which includes the animal sciences program - a well-established national reputation as a veterinary orthopedic surgeon.
Over the past two decades, Collier's expertise has taken him to the University of California, Davis, and to Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, Oklahoma State University the University of Oklahoma. His degrees in veterinary medicine were earned at Washington State University.
"We are at an exciting and critical juncture in the development of our agricultural programs at UH Hilo, Chancellor Tseng said. "About $50 million in federal funding has been approved for a major new US Department of Agriculture facility at our research park, and Big Island planners are paying good deal of attention to forestry as an alternative to sugar to help revitalize the island's economy.
"UH Hilo intends to be a driver for those initiatives," she added, "and we are confident that Dean Collier's experience as a researcher and teacher and will be invaluable to us. He's also known to be an effective fund raiser and that will serve the university well as we come to depend more and more on outside sources of support."
Collier's appointment is effective January 2, 2001. He succeeds incumbent dean Jack Fujii who left the dean's position after 17 years to return to teaching.
