News
Appointments
Rick Ludescher, professor in
the Department of Food Science in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, has
been named Cook Campus dean, responsible for connecting undergraduates to
academic resources offered by faculty and staff.
"This position is crucially important in the transformation of undergraduate education in New Brunswick/Piscataway because the campus dean will be the faculty member most visible to undergraduates from the time they enter Rutgers," said Barry Qualls, vice president for undergraduate education.
Ludescher, who came to Rutgers in 1988, is the recipient of numerous teaching and academic excellence awards. He has served as an undergraduate curriculum coordinator in food science, as chair of the Cook College Academic Forum, and as a first-year faculty dorm mentor. Since 1990, he has also mentored students from New Jersey high schools who are interested in pursuing science majors.
Ludescher received his bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Iowa and his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Oregon. His research interests include protein chemistry, the physical chemistry of foods and developing novel applications of luminescence spectroscopy to solve basic scientific as well as practical problems in food science.
The campus dean will focus on
building campus academic programming and learning communities and on involving
faculty and staff in this work, recruiting faculty and alumni to develop
research opportunities and internships for undergraduates, and developing and
overseeing co-curricular activities that integrate student life with academic
and intellectual experiences.
Sarolta Takács, associate professor in the Department of Classics, has been appointed dean of the new School
of Arts and Sciences Honors Program in
New Brunswick.
Takács joined Rutgers in 2001 after teaching at Harvard University, where for several years she also held the position of academic dean of students in one of the undergraduate residential houses. During her first year at Rutgers, she served as the director of undergraduate studies for the classics department and has been director of graduate studies for the last four years. In addition to her many other commitments to undergraduate education, she is presently the chair of the implementation subcommittee for honors and high-achieving students, and helped shape the school's Honors Program from its inception.
Takács is a historian whose work focuses primarily on two ancient cultures: of pagan Rome and its Christian successor, Byzantium. Her scholarly work deals with the continuation and transformation of established traditional patterns, be they literary, cultural, or social. She has published extensively on these topics; a book on women and Roman religion, “Vestal Virgins, Sibyls, and Matrons” is scheduled to be published by University of Texas Press in 2007. Cambridge University Press recently accepted her newest monograph, a study of Rome’s traditional values and empire formations.
- Carla Cantor