Iowa State has appointed Richard Ross as dean of the College of Agriculture for a two-year period after a university committee spent months searching for and deciding on a candidate.

ISU Provost Rollin Richmond said Ross is very qualified to fill the position.

“He’s done an excellent job in the position as interim. He is, of course, a longtime member of the university as a distinguished professor of veterinary medicine, knows the agriculture industry and education industry in Iowa and at Iowa State very well,” he said.

Ross will serve in the position until a permanent replacement is chosen. In February, he replaced David Topel, professor of animal science, who had served as dean of agriculture since 1988.

A nationwide search was held for a permanent successor to Topel. Seven candidates were interviewed, but a final candidate could not be agreed upon.

“The agriculture community supporting the university could not agree on a candidate from the outside. We brought in several of them and each one of them was found to have good strengths, but wanting in other areas,” Richmond said.

No decisions on an interim replacement for Ross in the College of Veterinary Medicine have been made, but Richmond said he hopes to name an interim quickly.

Iowa State will then conduct a national search to fill the position permanently, Richmond said.

David Fisher, member of the Board of Regents, said ISU administrators decided to wait until a new ISU president was in place before naming a new dean of agriculture.

Richard Seagrave, distinguished professor of chemical engineering, has been named interim ISU president. He will officially take over when ISU President Martin Jischke leaves for Purdue University in August.

“They just felt that it was best, in light of the change of leadership at Iowa State, that the new president should be in place before a new dean would come on board,” Fisher said. “I think most people would want to have the leadership in place before they’d make a decision to accept the position at Iowa State.”

Richmond said he believes it will benefit Iowa State to wait until a president has been named before the university names a permanent agriculture dean.

“I think it will certainly help us to have a new president in place, so that whomever takes that position will have a sense of direction the university is going in and have support from the president,” he said.

Ross’ appointment to the position will be reviewed by the Board of Regents.

Topel said he believes his successor will fill in more than adequately.

“He’ll do a great job. He’s got a lot of experience as a an administrator, and he’s proven that when he was interim dean,” he said.

Richmond said the active search for a permanent replacement has been put off for now.

“Approximately a year from now, we will start the search up again and try to identify some good candidates, but for the time being we are fortunate to have Dean Ross in place,” he said.