UF/IFAS to install new director

Dr. Scott Angle. IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Dr. J. Scott Angle has been named director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, to lead the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS). He is expected to assume the role as VP for agriculture and natural resources for the Gainesville, Fla.-based university on July 13.

Angle will oversee UF’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences with more than 6,000 students, the Florida Cooperative Extension Service, and the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station’s network of research centers, including Pest Management University. The announcement ends a 10-month national search.

Dr. Angle spent more than 35 years in agricultural science and administration, including 25 years as a professor of soil science and administrator — director of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station and Maryland Cooperative Extension — at the University of Maryland.

From 2005 to 2015, Dr. Angle served as dean and director of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia. He is a fellow in the American Society of Agronomy and the Soil Science Society of America, and a Fulbright Fellow, having worked at the Rothamsted (Research) Experimental Station, in the United Kingdom. He subsequently served as president and CEO of the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), dedicated to helping impoverished farmers worldwide produce more food.

Dr. Angle succeeds Dr. Jack Payne, who is retiring after 10 years in the position. During Dr. Payne’s tenure, CALS enrollment rose to record levels and faculty achieved a single-year record for grants and contracts. UF/IFAS built a honey bee lab, a professional development center, a biological station in Cedar Key, a teaching forest learning center, and a beef teaching unit headquarters, among other advancements.