Skip to Main Content

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

a woman smiling
Faculty Spotlight: Tingting Ju

Tingting Ju, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in microbiome and microbial resistance, and she...

Read More
Aerial image of the pumpkin plot at the Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center.
Squashing common farming challenges with resilient agriculture

This fall, researchers at the Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center (SWPAC) have turned their...

Read More
Apples in a basket at Wea Creek Apple Orchard.
Ag students love this local apple orchard a bushel and a peck

The leaves outside are changing colors, the air is becoming crisp and cold and people across...

Read More
a woman smiling
Alumni Spotlight: Monica Pajuelo

Monica Pajuelo received her bachelor’s degree in animal sciences with a concentration in...

Read More
Kayla Hinton stands in front of a Clorox logo on a wall with a giant prop of a cleaning bottle
Cultivating the Future: One Year Later

Here are the stories of four recent Purdue alumni who used their experiences to cultivate their...

Read More
Black ergot heads burst from a dried head of rye
Could a fungus be behind the Salem witch trials?

Mass hallucinations and paranoia. Seizures and bodily convulsions. From 1692 to 1693, the town of...

Read More
To Top