CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Robert J. Hauser, who has been serving as the interim dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois since August 2009, will become dean of the college, pending approval by the U. of I. Board of Trustees at its Sept. 23 meeting in Urbana. Hauser’s appointment is effective Sept. 27.
“Bob has provided terrific leadership over the last year,” said Richard Wheeler, interim vice chancellor for academic affairs, “both as an advocate for the College of ACES and as a leader in the campus effort to address some very serious issues.”
On Aug. 16, 2009, Hauser was appointed the Clearing Corp. Foundation Professor in the department of agricultural and consumer economics. He served as the head of the department from January 1995 through August 2001 and then again from August 2004 to 2009.
He became interim dean of the college when Robert Easter, the dean of the college at that time, was named interim chancellor of the Urbana campus.
Hauser joined the U. of I. in 1982 with a research and teaching focus on grain transportation, the use and pricing of options and futures, and the effects of economic and policy changes on Illinois and U.S. agriculture.
Among the courses he has taught are a doctoral level class on price analysis, a master’s course on research methodology, an introductory course on agricultural marketing, a junior-senior legislative seminar course, a Discovery course for freshmen, and a graduate-level economic-theory short course in Spain.
Hauser earned his doctorate in agricultural economics from Iowa State University in 1982 and his bachelor of science in agricultural business at Iowa State University in 1976.
