Chair's Note

I write my final Chair's Note this spring, finishing up five years of service to the department in this role, and noting also the outstanding but similarly concluding service of Professor George Bentley in his capacity as Vice-chair. Our major accomplishments during this period have included the successful hiring of twelve faculty members into the department, as well as weathering the storms of the coronavirus pandemic and political vicissitudes during these tumultuous times.  The department retains its strong and well-deserved national and international reputation in organismal biology, and we are determined in the years to come to continue focusing on academic excellence within the broader context of education, communication, and outreach, at what is the nation's finest public university.  I write now at the glorious onset of the California wildflower season along with an abundance of hummingbirds, academic study of which I will return to full-time in both the laboratory and via fieldwork once the chair's tenure concludes.  Professor Bentley and I are nonetheless very pleased to welcome Professors Eileen Lacey and Tyrone Hayes as the department's incoming Co-Chairs, and look forward to many years of productive scientific interactions with our students, friends, and colleagues in the Department of Integrative Biology.

Robert Dudley Professor and Chair