A faculty administrator from the United States Military Academy at West Point has been named dean of Cal State Fullerton’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Geologist Marie Johnson has taught at the military academy for 21 years, where she is a professor of geology, and since 2008, has been director of the Environmental Program. Johnson will join CSUF on July 1.
Her responsibilities at West Point include providing guidance and vision to keep the program relevant and attractive to students; selecting, developing and evaluating faculty; advising and mentoring students; assessing and improving the curriculum; and administrating the program’s budget.
Johnson’s research interests focus on environmental security, an interdisciplinary field that seeks to analyze how degraded environments cause chaos, conflict and violence in the world.
As a scholar, she has given numerous presentations and authored dozens of published articles and monographs, received National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Department of Energy awards and served as a reviewer of research proposals for NSF and NASA. Her work with West Point students earned her numerous accolades, including Department of the Army Superior Civilian Service Award in 2011 and 2014.
Johnson earned her doctorate and master’s degree in geological sciences from Brown University. She was a postdoctoral fellow and research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a research unit of Columbia University.
David D. Bowman, professor of geological sciences who joined CSUF in 2000, has been serving as interim dean of the college since January 2014. His accomplishments include supporting and overseeing a significant expansion of the college’s exchange programs in Thailand and increasing faculty exchanges and study abroad programs in South America.