01/11/2002

Jensen Named Interim Dean of AU College of Agriculture

AUBURN, Ala. - John W. Jensen, a 30-year veteran of Auburn University and current head of the Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures, has been named interim dean of the AU College of Agriculture and director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station.

Jensen, who has led the fisheries program at Auburn as department head since 1996, was appointed by John Pritchett, Auburn's interim provost and vice president for academic affairs.

"I am absolutely delighted that John Jensen has accepted this position and the challenges associated with it," Pritchett said.
Auburn University Interim President William F. Walker praised the selection, citing Jensen's record, energy and familiarity with Auburn and its constituencies.

"John Jensen's record as a researcher, administrator and an innovator make him extremely qualified to head the College of Agriculture and the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station as interim dean and director," Walker said.

"He possesses the energy, the knowledge and the familiarity with this university's various constituencies to help both the College and the Experiment Station grow to meet the challenges of new directions in agriculture that we're seeing in Alabama, nationally and worldwide."

Jensen holds a bachelor's degree in wildlife management from the University of Minnesota and a master's and Ph.D. in fisheries and allied aquacultures from Auburn.

After three years in Brazil with the Peace Corps, Jensen came to Auburn in 1972 as a research associate and served as a graduate research assistant, for 15 years as an Extension fisheries specialist with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and six years as a fisheries professor . In 1995, he was named interim head of the department and was appointed head of the department a year later.

As fisheries head, Jensen directed a 145-employee program largely reliant on outside funding (grant money for the department exceeded $4.1 million in 2000, more than any other department on the AU campus). Still, Auburn's fisheries program has continued its reputation as among the best of its kind in the world.

Jensen's tenure has seen improvement and expansion of facilities across the state (including the construction of a new $650,000 shellfish laboratory at the Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory), innovative and leading research in species ranging from red snapper to catfish and the department's coordination of a statewide volunteer water quality monitoring network.

Jensen's work as a researcher and administrator has been recognized with awards from the Alabama Agribusiness Council, the National Association of County Agricultural Agents, the Alabama catfish industry and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

He has authored or co-authored more than 40 extension publications, refereed publications, bulletins, reports, departmental series and books and has given presentations to groups all over the United States as well as in Brazil, Vietnam, China, Thailand and Canada.

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu

January 2002