The college’s leadership team has been joined by new leaders for the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and the School of Forest Resources.

Charles Strauss, professor of forest economics, has been named director of the School of Forest Resources for a three-year term that began May 1. Strauss had previously served for ten months as the school’s interim director.

The School of Forest Resources currently enrolls about 380 undergraduate and 130 graduate students. As director, Strauss oversees more than 70 faculty and staff, including two endowed positions, the Maurice K. Goddard Chair in Forestry and Environmental Resource Conservation and the Joseph E. Ibberson Chair in Forest Resources Management.

The school’s teaching, research, and cooperative extension and outreach programs focus on wood science; forest biology and management; wood products marketing, management, and manufacturing; fisheries and wildlife science and management; urban and community forestry; watershed science and management; wetlands ecology; and genetics and systematics.

Strauss has served the University for more than 40 years. His academic interests include recreation economics, energy economics, and investment analysis of resource systems. His research on the economic impact of travel and tourism has included an evaluation of heritage tourism in southwestern Pennsylvania and a study of eco-tourism surrounding the elk herd in northcentral Pennsylvania.

Strauss has taught several undergraduate and graduate courses and served on many University and statewide boards and committees. His numerous honors include the Research Honor Award from the Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society, the Professional Service Award from the Pennsylvania Forestry Association, and the School of Forest Resources Outstanding Faculty Award, which is selected by graduate and undergraduate student groups.

Strauss began his professional career as a technical design representative for the California Redwood Association in 1960. In 1961, he came to Penn State as a forest products extension specialist. He joined the resident faculty as an instructor in 1966, attaining the rank of full professor in 1990.

Strauss holds three Penn State degrees: a bachelor’s in forest management, a master’s in economics, and a doctorate in agricultural economics. He also earned a master’s degree in forest products marketing from Michigan State University.

David Sylvia, professor of soil microbiology at the University of Florida, has been appointed head of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.

Sylvia has been professor in the University of Florida’s soil and water science department since 1993, served as administrative intern for academic programs in that university’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences from 1996 through 1997, and was a visiting research fellow at the Biological Laboratory of the University of Kent at Canterbury, United Kingdom, in 1993. He was associate professor at the University of Florida from 1989 to 1993, assistant professor at the university from 1984 to 1989, and research associate there from 1981 to 1984.

Sylvia’s research examines the microbial ecology of the rhizosphere—particularly mycorrhizal fungi—with the goal of incorporating mycorrhizal technology into sustainable agriculture practice. He has edited three books, contributed chapters for 16 others, authored a total of 57 refereed papers and abstracts, and has delivered invited lectures at numerous state, national, and international research symposia.

He has been elected fellow of the Soil Science Society of America; been honored as Grad-uate Teacher/Adviser of the Year in the University of Florida College of Agricultural and Life Sciences; and was a 1997 Fulbright Distinguished Scholar. Sylvia received the University of Florida Outstanding Faculty Achievement and Performance Award in 1990, and was a National Academy of Science Exchange Scholar to Czechoslovakia in 1988.

Sylvia received his bachelor’s degree in forestry from the University of Massachusetts in 1975 and a master’s degree in plant pathology from the same institution in 1977. He received his doctorate in plant pathology from Cornell University in 1981.

He is a member of the American Society of Agronomy, the American Society of Microbiology, the International Society of Root Research, the Soil Ecology Society, and the Soil Science Society of America.

—Chuck Gill and Gary Abdullah