USU Taps Former NSF Official as Ecology Center Director
Nancy J. Huntly has been appointed director of Utah State University’s Ecology Center and professor in USU’s Department of Biology.
Selected following a nationwide search, Huntly most recently served as program director for the National Science Foundation’s Division of Environmental Biology and Long Term Ecological Research Programs. She has been a member of Idaho State University’s Department of Biological Sciences faculty since 1986.
Huntly joins USU Oct. 1.
“The Ecology Center has an impressive history of research and graduate education,” she says. “It is an honor to join the center and help to form its future programs. I look forward to working with the faculty to define the Ecology Center’s unique role and to help make the center a leader in the ever-more interdisciplinary field of ecology.”
Huntly succeeds James “Jim” MacMahon, trustee professor and dean of USU’s College of Science, who has served as director of the Ecology Center since 2005.
“Nancy is a welcome addition to USU and we’re excited to have a scientist of her caliber joining our team,” MacMahon says. “A leader in her field, she is an innovator who brings a wealth of expertise and fresh ideas that will greatly benefit our students and faculty.”
In addition to her NSF and ISU appointments, Huntly has served as an adjunct professor in USU’s Department of Biology since 2010 and as chair of the Independent Science Advisory Board for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, NOAA Fisheries and Columbia River Tribes since 2005.
Huntly’s research interests include evolutionary and community ecology — especially human ecology, along with food webs and arid, arctic and alpine ecosystems.
She was an editor for the 2001 symposium volume Ecology: Achievement and Challenge and has published 45 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
A native of northern Michigan, Huntly earned a bachelor’s degree from Kalamazoo College in 1977. She completed a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona in 1985.
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Contact: Stephanie White, 435-797-2555, stephanie.white@usu.edu
Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto, 435-797-3517, maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu
Ecologist Nancy J. Huntly is the new director of USU's Ecology Center. She assumes her post Oct. 1. Photo by Brian Autenrieth, courtesy of Idaho State University.
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