William “Bill” Payne joined today the University of Nevada, Reno as the new dean of the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources.
Payne comes to the University from Texas A&M University, where he was a professor of crop physiology and director of a multi-institutional, $150 million research endeavor aimed at improving food security and livelihoods in the dry areas of the world.
As dean, Payne also becomes director of the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station, which conducts basic and applied research, programs and collaborations to enhance the sustainability of Nevada’s agriculture industry. The Agricultural Experiment Station operates eight field laboratories around the state.
“I’m excited about this position for several reasons,” Payne said. “I am impressed by the very high standards exemplified by CABNR’s faculty and staff, and the college’s interdisciplinary composition. I believe these are qualities that provide comparative advantages in addressing real world problems in Nevada and indeed around the world, for solutions to such problems are almost always interdisciplinary.”
Payne, as director of the Research Program on Dryland Systems conducted through Texas A&M’s Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, led an innovative and integrated agro-ecosystem approach involving multiple stakeholders to improve agricultural productivity and alleviate poverty and hunger in dry areas of the world. Much of his field work centered in Ethiopia.
