By SAMANTHA SIZEMORE
The College of Biology and Agriculture is now under the direction of a new dean, Dr. Kent Crookston, formerally head of the department of agronomy and plant genetics at the University of Minnesota.
He is replacing Clayton S. Huber who served as dean for the past for 10 years.
Dean Crookston received his bachelor of science degree in agronomy from BYU in 1968. He went on to earn his master’s and doctoral degrees in plant physiology from the University of Minnesota.
He worked with the Canada Department of Agriculture for one year and moved on to Cornell University. After working as a research associate at Cornell, he went on to teach at the University of Minnesota, where he has been for more than 20 years.
Crookston said he has great plans for the College of Biology and Agriculture. He said he would like to extend BYU’s influence to more of the world.
“The church is growing fastest in areas where agriculture predominates, where nutrition is inadequate, and where the environment is more at risk. I’d like to see this college have more of a presence in these areas,” he said.
Crookston said he is excited to be in the field of biology and agriculture in the 1990s.
“I’m really impressed with the world-class research going on at BYU,” he said.
Crookston has focused on basic and applied crop research which will eventually help resolve problems such as global hunger and malnutrition.
Crookston has also served as a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Morocco, Senegal, West Africa and Rwanda. USAID is a program that helps countries combat poverty, disease, and malnutrition.
Crookston would like the college to work more with the environment. BYU is already studying endangered animals to find methods of replenishing populations. The problem, he said, is simple.
“The whole western ecosystem is fragile. We need to know more about re-establishing the ecosystem that was supporting them (endangered animals),” he said.
Crookston also said he would like to improve the marketability of BYU students. The college is doing an excellent job already, he said, but improvements can be made.
“The challenge is to maintain the best of our traditional curriculum as we accommodate the explosion of new information — all the while providing adequate training for our students in social skills.”
Although Crookston is a scientist by profession, he also dabbles in art and writing. When he first came to BYU, in fact, he was an art major. Later he decided to keep art as a hobby and pursue a degree in agronomy.
“I still write, too,” he said.
Crookston said he was drawn to BYU because of the combination of professional excellence with the mission of the church.
“It was a chance to mix spirituality with academics. It’s exciting to be able to pursue both,” Crookston said.
BYU is different from public universities because it is not accountable to the same government agencies, Crookston said. Therefore, BYU is free to pursue research that might not be considered by other universities.
“We (BYU) can combine that freedom with what we have in the scriptures,” he said.
Crookston and his wife have seven children, three of which still live at home. The family resides in Orem.
