The University of Vermont announced today that Mary C. Watzin has been appointed dean of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, the third dean in the school's history. She will assume the full-time role effective July 1, 2009.

Watzin is currently the associate dean for graduate education and school planning in the Rubenstein School and the director of the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory, which she has led since its founding in 1998.

"Mary Watzin is an accomplished researcher, educator, and administrator," said UVM president Daniel Mark Fogel. "We are very much looking forward to her leadership of the school, which will be critical to our collective pursuit of the vision for the University of Vermont as one of the nation's premier small research universities and as a global leader in environmental science and policy."

"Mary is a seasoned professional who is respected and well liked by her colleagues," said John M. Hughes, UVM provost. "She will do a stellar job of leading an important academic unit at the university and will also play a vital role in helping the university achieve its ambitious institutional goals."

Watzin came to Vermont in 1990 as assistant unit leader in the Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with an appointment as research associate professor in what was then UVM's School of Natural Resources. She was appointed to the rank of associate professor in the school in 1994 and to professor in 2005.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Ph.D.) and the University of South Carolina (B.S.), she worked for several years as an ecologist with the National Wetlands Research Center of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in Slidell, La.

Watzin has received numerous awards and other recognitions for her teaching, research, and service, including the Kroepsch-Maurice award for teaching excellence and the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation award from the Isle LaMotte Preservation Trust. She also received the Ibakari- Kasumigaura Prize recognizing her work with colleagues in Macedonia and Albania on transboundary water management.

Watzin specializes in lake and watershed ecology and has published over 90 scientific papers in refereed journals, books, and technical proceedings.

She succeeds Lawrence K. Forcier, who served as interim dean.