Interim dean of agriculture brings experience to the task
At the end of 2022, Purdue’s President Mung Chiang announced that Karen Plaut, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture, had accepted the position of Executive Vice President for Research for Purdue University. Effective January 9, Ken Foster, professor of agricultural economics, will be serving as the Interim Dean of Purdue University’s College of Agriculture. Foster is a graduate of Purdue University and earned his master’s degree from the University of Georgia and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis.
During his 32-year career at Purdue, Foster has demonstrated remarkable leadership. He held the position of associate head and graduate program director before serving as head of the Department of Agricultural Economics for nine years. Among many other responsibilities, his role as Department Head involved extensive outreach to stakeholders in the agricultural, energy, community development, government policy and natural resources arenas. Foster also led the establishment of the Center for Commercial Agriculture and the department rose to fourth in the world in the Agricultural Economics and Policy area according to the Center for World University Rankings.
After stepping down as head, Foster served as President’s Fellow for Colombia-Purdue Partnerships in 2018-2019. He served as interim head of the Department of Food Science for a year and a half beginning in 2020. During that time, he collaborated with colleagues to envision and secure seed funding for the Food Entrepreneurship and Manufacturing Institute (FEMI).
Purdue Provost Patrick Wolfe will soon announce the appointment of the committee that will conduct a national search for the College of Agriculture’s new dean.
Featured Stories
Growing up traveling the world, Abigail Bothwell always wanted to see how agriculture connects...
The Alliance of Crop, Soil and Environmental Science Societies (ACSESS) have acknowledged three...
Farmer sentiment weakened sharply in January, as the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy...
Purdue University has grown a thriving forest of more than 2,000 geographic information systems...
Growing up in Bloomington, Kendall Cottingham was certain that she liked science and was a people...
On January 23, 2026, Navitas Organics announced a recall of selecting lots of 8 oz Organic Chia...