A message from Howard Gillman, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, UC Irvine

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Brandon Gaut as Interim Dean of the School of Biological Sciences, effective November 1, 2013.

Professor Gaut joined UCI in 1998 as an assistant professor, and served as the chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from 2006 to 2012. He holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Riverside. Professor Gaut specializes in the population genetics and evolution of plant genomes. His research highlights include seminal contributions in evolutionary methods, understanding the rates at which genes evolve, the population genetics of domestication, and the effect of epigenetics on genome evolution. His ongoing research includes investigation of the genetics of bacterial evolution in a lab environment. He is a recipient of a number of teaching awards including Professor of the Year at UCI in 2008. He has been awarded an Alfred P Sloan Young Investigator award and is currently the President-Elect of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Please join me in welcoming Professor Gaut to his new role as Interim Dean.