Daniel Robison began his tenure as the Endowed Dean’s Chair of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University in January 2019. He also serves as director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station. Following a national search, he was announced as the 11th dean in the history of Iowa State’s agricultural college in October 2018.
Robison came to Iowa State from West Virginia University, where he served 2012-2019as the dean of the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design. During his tenure, the Davis College achieved record student enrollment and retention while adding several new teaching and research facilities, and programmatic initiatives. Prior to that position, Robison served on the faculty at North Carolina State University for 16 years, where he directed the Hardwood Research Cooperative working with forest products industries and agencies across the South. He completed his tenure at NC State as associate dean of research in the College of Natural Resources, with responsibilities that also included service, international and strategic programming. His primary teaching responsibilities were courses in forestry and natural resources, and forest science.
Robison, a forester and forest entomologist by discipline, has published and presented, and trained graduate students in the areas of forest entomology and pest management, silviculture of natural hardwoods, biomass-bioenergy plantation systems, agroforestry, and clonal forestry. His international experience includes spending two years in West Africa as a consultant and volunteer for the West Africa Rice Development Association, African Development Bank and U.S. Peace Corps and Agency for International Development. He also has done field work in countries that include Canada, Myanmar, Israel, and South Africa.
Robison earned a doctorate in entomology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1993. He earned a master’s degree in silviculture and forest influences in 1986 and a bachelor’s degree in forestry in 1982, both from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry – Syracuse. He was a Fellow of the American Council on Education 2007-2008.
Robison is a native of New Jersey. He and his wife Julie, a native of Wisconsin, have two daughters.