The announcement was made on Sept. 28 that the list of eight had been cut down the four finalists, following two 75-minute interviews in Minneapolis.

Each of the four finalists names would be announced by the Board of Regents 24 hours prior to each being on Iowa State’s campus for their own open forum.

The first candidate, annouced on Oct. 8, is Sonny Ramaswamy, the director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

As director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Ramaswany oversees 400 permanent and contractual employees with a budget of $1.6 billion.

He has worked at several land-grant universities in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Kansas, Indiana and Oregon.

The second candidate is Pamela Whitten, senior vice president of student affairs and provost at the University of Georgia, Athens (UGA).

In her current position, Whitten is provost to a university containing 17 schools and colleges and 38,000 students — 29,000 undergraduates and 8,700 graduate and professional students. UGA is a land-grant institution.

The third finalist is Dale Whittaker, the provost and executive vice president at the University of Central Florida, Orlando (UCF).

UCF has a total enrollment of 64,318 and 33 colleges. Whittaker works with an operating budget of $1.67 billion.

The fourth finalists is Wendy Wintersteen, who currently serves as Iowa State’s dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Wintersteen has served as the dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Science since 2006. She works with a current budget of $172 million with $51.5 million in sponsored research.