Dr. Robert D. Brown has been chosen to serve as the new dean of the College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University. Brown currently serves as the director of the Institute of Renewable Natural Resources and head of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University.

Provost Larry Nielsen announced the appointment of Brown to the post; Brown will assume his duties as dean on Aug. 1.

Brown succeeds Nielsen, who served as dean from 2001 until his appointment to interim provost in 2004 and subsequent selection as provost in 2005. Dr. J.B. Jett served as interim dean following Nielsen's departure.

"Were excited to announce Bob Browns appointment as dean of the College of Natural Resources," Nielsen said. "His extensive experience in natural resources management and innovative approaches to sustainability are a great fit with the mission and achievements of the college and its programs. I have worked with Bob for more than 20 years, and he is one of the finest natural resource leaders in the nation."

NC States College of Natural Resources has a 75-year history of cutting-edge research into natural resource management, leveraging the university's strengths in science, technology and agriculture to manage resource consumption while maintaining environmental sustainability. Nearly 800 undergraduate and 200 graduate students are enrolled in three departments - forestry and environmental resources; parks, recreation and tourism management; and wood and paper science.

As head of wildlife and fisheries sciences at Texas A&M, Brown manages 49 faculty members in 10 locations throughout the state of Texas, and diverse programs, including an extension program, a Sea Grant program, a marine mammal program in Galveston, and a mariculture program in Corpus Christi. During his tenure, Brown developed joint and cooperative doctoral programs with other universities within the Texas system, expanded the extension program, developed a distance education graduate program, and attracted more than $5 million in endowment gifts.

In 1995, Brown was appointed director of the Institute for Renewable Natural Resources, a coalition that includes wildlife and fisheries sciences; forest science; rangeland ecology and management; and recreation, park and tourism sciences. He led a successful effort to become the host unit for the Gulf Coast-Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (GC-CESU), a coalition of nine federal agencies, 21 universities and three nongovernmental organizations dedicated to environmental research and education. The GC-CESU received the 2005 award for the best CESU in the nation.

Brown has also served as president of the National Association of Fish and Wildlife Programs, chair of the national External Review Panel for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative of the American Forest and Paper Association, and is currently president of the Wildlife Society.

Before joining Texas A&M, Brown spent six years as head of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Mississippi State University. Prior to that, Brown spent six years as a research scientist with the Cesar Kleberg Wildlife Institution.

Brown began his academic career as an assistant professor of animal nutrition at Texas A&I University. He received his bachelors degree from Colorado State University in 1968, and his Ph.D. in 1975 in animal nutrition with a minor in physiology from Pennsylvania State University.