Servello named interim dean of College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture
Frederick Servello has been named interim dean of the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture, and interim director of the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station, succeeding Edward Ashworth, who will retire Sept. 30 after 10 years as dean.
Servello, currently associate dean for research in the college and associate director of the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station, will serve a nine-month appointment, Oct. 1–June 30. A national search for dean and Experiment Station director will begin this fall.
“We will miss the leadership and vision of Dean Ashworth, and we appreciate the continuity Fred will bring to the interim position, having worked closely with Ed for more than eight years,” says Jeffrey Hecker, UMaine executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. “Fred’s extensive record of administration, teaching, research and community engagement will serve the college and UMaine well in this transition period.”
Servello has been a member of the UMaine community for 27 years. He served eight years as associate dean for research in the college and nine years as associate director of the Experiment Station. Prior to these appointments, for five years he was chair of the then Department of Wildlife Ecology. In 2006, Servello received the college’s Outstanding Teaching Award.
He has a Ph.D. in fisheries and wildlife sciences from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and has conducted research on the ecology and management of waterbirds in Maine, the impact of moose browsing on forest regeneration, and the foraging ecology of wild turkeys and black bears.
Ashworth was a faculty member at Purdue University for 19 years, the last eight as head of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, prior to joining the UMaine community. His career includes 10 years as a plant physiologist for the USDA Agricultural Research Service at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland and Appalachian Fruit Research Station in West Virginia.