Professor leaving UF to become dean at Utah State

August 18, 2005

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Nat Frazer, professor and chairman of the wildlife ecology and conservation department at the University of Florida, will become dean of the College of Natural Resources at Utah State University in Logan, beginning Jan. 1, 2006.

In announcing his decision to accept the new position at Utah State, Frazer said his six years of service at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences have been among the most enjoyable, beneficial and productive of his career. He also said that he looks forward to the challenge of serving as dean of the college at Utah State.

During the coming fall 2005 semester at UF, Frazer said he will teach the 96 students enrolled for his course on biodiversity conservation. He will also pursue two other goals: securing an endowment for new department scholarships from the Florida Wildlife Federation and adding additional members to the department’s external advisory committee.

Jimmy Cheek, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at UF, congratulated Frazer for his new position as dean of the college at Utah State and said Frazer has provided outstanding leadership to UF’s wildlife ecology and conservation program.

“Nat Frazer has recruited an outstanding faculty and helped build one of the nation’s premier wildlife ecology and conservation programs,” Cheek said. “He has established important links with other UF departments and enhanced working relationships with organizations such as Alachua Conservation Trust, The Nature Conservancy, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and other state and national organizations. I am confident that Dr. Frazer will be an excellent dean at Utah State.”

A Georgia native, Frazer completed his bachelor’s degree in history at the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in history and public affairs at the University of Illinois in Springfield. He earned his doctoral degree in ecology at the University of Georgia’s Institute of Ecology, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in the Marine Policy Program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts.