Associate Professor or Professor and DiNovo-Deak Endowed Chair of Plant Science and Food Security

The University of Dayton College of Arts and Sciences invites applications for the inaugural DiNovo-Deak Endowed Chair of Plant Science and Food Security. This inaugural endowed chair will have the opportunity to conduct impactful work on the application of plant or crop science and to join an active and diverse research landscape at the University of Dayton to increase food security in regions of the world with the greatest need. This inaugural endowed chair is a tenured position at the Associate Professor or Professor rank within the Department of Biology. If this opportunity interests you, apply today.

The fundamental goal of the DiNovo-Deak Endowed Chair of Plant Science and Food Security is to make advancements in applied plant or crop science that can increase global food security by improving the resilience or yield of crops utilized in at-risk regions of the world. Global population growth and climate change expose hundreds of millions of people to hunger and food insecurity, particularly in developing countries. Plant science and specifically crop science play a critical role in addressing a wide range of related challenges associated with this complex issue, including crop resilience and yield, crop diversification, as well as drought and salinity tolerance. Through teaching, applied research and practical implementation, this endowed chair will focus on improving food security for the world’s most vulnerable populations through plant or crop science and other fields as needed to improve the likelihood of success.

The DiNovo-Deak Chair of Plant Science and Food Security will test and implement their research by working directly with subsistence farmers in an impoverished region of the world with the specific goal of improving crop yield and quality in real-world applications that can be repeated and shared with other subsistence farmers. This chair will have a research agenda embedded in the community they serve to build trust, collaboration, and to amplify their impact.