New research vice president seeking ways to give students competitive edge
Paul Rasmussen, the director of the Utah State University Experiment Station, has accepted the offer extended by President Kermit L. Hall to become an associate vice president for research.
Rasmussen will continue his role as director of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station (UAES), a role he has held since 1989, and relinquish his position as executive director of the university’s Biotechnology Center.
The new responsibilities which come with being associate vice president for research will not be new ground for Rasmussen since he served as associate vice president from 1992 to 1999. So for him, taking this new position is more of a homecoming.
“Because agriculture is so important to the mission of Utah State University and because the Experiment Station generates significant research dollars, it is important that the director of the Experiment Station be directly engaged with Utah State University’s research enterprise,” President Hall said.
“Moving back as associate vice president for research will be a welcomed challenge,” Rasmussen said. “There are many outstanding research faculty and programs at Utah State, and I look forward to the opportunity to work more closely with them. Research at Utah State is vitally important to our mission of being a successfully engaged university, serving the people of the state of Utah and giving students a cutting-edge education that makes them highly qualified and competitive in the work force.”
Rasmussen will work with USU’s interim vice president for research, Brent Miller.
“I am looking forward to having closer coordination with the director of the Experiment Station,” Miller said. “Paul Rasmussen will share with us the vast experience he has gained from the diverse projects he has worked with across campus.”
Born in Tremonton and raised in Hyde Park, Rasmussen attended the College of Southern Utah for 2 years, then came to USU on a basketball scholarship and was on the 1959-60 Aggie basketball team.
While attending USU, he received a bachelor’s degree in botany and plant pathology. Rasmussen then moved to Michigan State University where he continued his education and completed his master’s and doctoral degrees in horticulture. The next 30 years Rasmussen worked on the faculty of various universities across the United States. He then came back to USU and worked as the associate director of the Experiment Station, and later functioned as the Experiment Station director and has done so up to the present time.
Rasmussen said he was excited to be returning to his old positon of associate vice president.
“It’s going to be fun to go back over there. The university changes and the research changes and it gets more complex. Working with groups of faculty to help them secure the resources to carry out the complex problems we do face in research is going to be an interesting and welcomed challenge,” he said.
Rasmussen said the students can expect to see an increase in research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.
“The Experiment Station as well as the vice president for research office has been concerned and always will be concerned with providing opportunities for students to get through school,” Rasmussen said. “We provide experiences for them so they not only can make money to help pay their way through school, but they also will have some hands-on experience that will make them that much more competitive when they move on into the job market or go to graduate school.”