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After five years at the helm of Utah State University's College of Natural Resources, Nat Frazer is stepping down at the end of the semester as the college embarks on "an extensive strategic planning process."
Chris Luecke, who heads the Department of Watershed Sciences, will serve as interim dean for an 18-month period while the college charts its future course before conducting a national search for a permanent successor, the university announced Monday.
"We all thank Dean Frazer for his dedicated service and leadership during a time in which the college has continued to strengthen its standing among peer institutions and important constituents," USU Provost Raymond Coward said in a statement.
Frazer is a marine ecologist with a faculty appointment in the Department of Wildland Resources, and will return to the classroom and lab next semester.
Frazer came to Logan from the University of Florida where he chaired the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation.
Luecke, a fisheries biologist who had served as interim dean in 2005, will head the planning committee, which will include college faculty members and others whose research encompasses topics related to natural resources, the environment and ecology.
Along with his administrative appointments, Luecke has run a research program at Toolik Lake in arctic Alaska, where the National Science Foundation maintains a long-term ecological study site, and continues research on Utah's reservoir fishes.