Theodore L. Hullar, the biochemist who served as chancellor of the University of California at Davis and at Riverside in the 1980s and '90s, as well as director of the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station in the 1980s, will return to Ithaca as director of the Cornell Center for the Environment (CfE).
Hullar's appointment, which is effective Sept. 15, is subject to approval of the Cornell Board of Trustees.
"We are delighted to have Ted Hullar return to Cornell and to pick up the reins of leadership at the center," said Norman R. Scott, Cornell vice president for research and advanced studies. "He brings tremendous expertise in environmental issues and a powerhouse of energy and enthusiasm that will involve the faculty in issues that affect all of us."
Daryl B. Lund, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and chair of the CfE Governing Board, commented: "The governing board is enthusiastically looking forward to the interdisciplinary strength that Ted brings to the position of director. Issues concerning the environment and natural resources require strength and cooperation across the disciplines of the university." The CfE Governing Board consists of deans of the colleges at Cornell.
Hullar succeeds Walter R. Lynn, the professor of civil and environmental engineering who directed the center since March, 1996.
CfE is the research, teaching and outreach unit of the university that incorporates four institutionally based programs (Institute for Resource Information Systems, Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology, Cornell Waste Management Institute and the Water Resources Institute) and other initiatives, including the Work and Environment Initiative and the Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors in New York State. More than 170 faculty and staff members from every college at Cornell participate in CfE programs.
Educated at the University of Minnesota, where he earned B.S. (1957) and Ph.D. (1963) degrees, Hullar joined the State University at Buffalo faculty in 1964. He served as environmental quality commissioner for Erie County, N.Y., (1974-75) and as deputy commissioner for programs and research at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (1975-79). Hullar joined the natural resources faculty at Cornell in 1979; was the associate director (1979-81) and director (1981-84) of the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station; and was instrumental in establishing two key programs in what was then called the Center for Environmental Research.
Currently, Hullar is a professor of environmental toxicology at Davis, co-director of the Risk Science Program and executive director of the Sierra Nevada Center.