Steve Lommel named to lead CALS research
Dr. Steven Lommel has been named associate dean and director for the N.C. Agricultural Research Service in N.C. State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, effective Sept. 1.
Lommel currently serves in several administrative roles, including interim president of the David H. Murdock Research Institute (DHMRI) in Kannapolis and assistant vice chancellor for research at N.C. State University.
A professor of plant pathology for CALS, Lommel also has served as a faculty member at Kansas State University and as the interim associate dean and director of NCARS under retired Dean Johnny Wynne. Lommel earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco and his master’s degree and doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.
“I have tremendous confidence in Dr. Lommel’s abilities, and I am positive he will work well with the CALS administrative team, our external stakeholders and our faculty, staff and students, to lead the research component of CALS to the highest level of excellence,” said CALS Dean Richard Linton in announcing Lommel’s appointment.
Lommel, who is a William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor, has a long history of research programs, funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. His work involves studying the structure of small plant viruses, with the goal of using them as viral-based nanotechnology cargo vehicles.
Lommel’s teaching responsibilities include graduate courses in plant pathology and plant virology, as well as invited lectures in biotechnology and genetics. He is editor for the journal Virology and sits on editorial boards of several other plant biology and virology journals. In 2012, he was named as a Food Systems Leadership Institute Fellow.
