Botany Professor Greg Brown is the director of the Robert and Carol Berry Biodiversity
and Conservation Center at the University of Wyoming.
Professor Greg Brown, head of the Department of Botany and former associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, has been appointed to a three-year term as director of the Robert and Carol Berry Biodiversity and Conservation Center at the University of Wyoming.
"Since the moment that Bob and Carol Berry made their generous gift to construct the Biodiversity and Conversation Center, Greg has been involved with the planning both for its construction and future purposes," says Oliver Walter, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "From the start, the center has been viewed as a venue for interdisciplinary research and teaching. Greg's ability to work with faculty and students from the across the university is unexcelled."
"I am honored and excited to be selected as the first director of the Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center," Brown said. "Building construction is progressing well and it is very satisfying to see the planning team's vision take form."
The Berry Center will be the working home for more than 40 faculty members and students, Brown says.
"Most of these faculty members and students will be engaged in exciting and regionally relevant interdisciplinary research related to biological conservation ranging from individual organisms to whole ecosystems," he says.
Following consultation with appropriate university administrators, Brown will be responsible for keeping Robert and Carol Berry informed of the facility's progress. Brown's initial tasks as director are to develop recommendations for a support budget, generate and implement a policy for center space assignment, create scheduling policy and priorities for using the Berry Center lecture theater and teaching labs and develop a policy for using the center for events hosted by UW departments and non-UW entities.
Additionally, Brown will originate a policy regarding the types of initial displays that will be in the Berry Center, and he will determine which displays will be long-term exhibits and which will be presented for short periods of time. Finally, Brown will work with the UW Foundation and Robert and Carol Berry to plan and conduct the ribbon cutting and grand opening.
Brown will be assisted by an advisory committee chaired by Associate Dean Gracie Lawson-Borders,
College of Arts and Sciences. Committee members are: Professor Steve Jackson, Department
of Botany and director of the Program in Ecology (PIE); Professor Frank Rahel, head
of the Department of Zoology and Physiology; Associate Vice President Carol Frost,
Office of Research and Economic Development; Professor Craig Benkman, Department of
Zoology and Physiology; and Associate Dean Brett Hess, College of Agriculture and
Natural Resources.
