The Opportunity

This inaugural endowed chair is a tenured position at the Associate Professor or Professor rank within a Department in the College of Arts and Sciences beginning August 16, 2026.

The fundamental goal of the DiNovo-Deak Endowed Chair of Plant Science and Food Security is to increase food security in regions of the world with the greatest need through the application of plant or crop science. The inaugural holder of the chair will make advancements in the area of applied plant science that can increase global food security by improving the resilience or yield of crops utilized in at-risk regions of the world.

Global population growth and climate change expose hundreds of millions of people to hunger and food insecurity, particularly in developing countries. Plant science, specifically crop science, plays a critical role in addressing a wide range of related challenges associated with this complex issue, including crop resilience and yield, crop diversification, and drought and salinity tolerance. Through teaching, applied research, and practical implementation, this endowed chair will focus on improving food security for the world’s most vulnerable populations through plant or crop science and other fields as needed to improve the likelihood of success.

The Dinovo-Deak Chair of Plant Science and Food Security will test and implement their research by working directly with subsistence farmers in an impoverished region of the world, with the specific goal of improving crop yield and quality in real-world applications. This chair will have a research agenda embedded in the community they serve to build trust, collaboration, and amplify their impact.

Campus Resources/Collaborations

The DiNovo-Deak Endowed Chair will join an active and diverse research landscape at the University of Dayton with multiple communities for potential interactions. The primary appointment for the endowed chair will likely be in the Department of Biology, the Department of Chemistry, or the Department Earth and Environmental Geosciences, with the possibility of a joint appointment depending on the chair's areas of expertise. Across the University, the Science and Engineering Catalyst Center supports faculty collaborations in multiple research themes, including environmental research. The Hanley Sustainability Institute brings together faculty advancing sustainability in broad terms, including food security. The Global and Intercultural Affairs and the Human Rights Center both have interdisciplinary programmatic collaborations with international partners committed to social justice. The University of Dayton Research Institute, a sponsored research arm of the University encompasses multiple fields of science and engineering, conducting ~$264 million in sponsored research annually.

University of Dayton

Grounded in its Catholic, Marianist tradition, UD provides education to develop the whole student and is committed to experiential learning. UD enrolls approximately 10,600 students, including 7,500 full-time undergraduates. It is one of the nation’s largest Catholic universities and one of the largest private universities in Ohio.

At the University of Dayton, we value inclusive excellence because we recognize that it is fundamental to academic and institutional excellence. Inclusive excellence requires a comprehensive, cohesive and collaborative alignment of infrastructure, resources and actions. We strive to be active, intentional, and sustain engagement with and celebrate diversity in every dimension of institutional life. Because we seek a community with a wide range of perspectives and experiences, we encourage all interested candidates to apply.

City of Dayton

The Dayton metro area has a population of about 815,000 and is a diverse community with a renewed downtown, a set of historic neighborhoods, and a highly favorable cost of living. Dayton is noted for its long history of innovation and invention, and has a vibrant and growing business environment. It is also home to corporations such as CareSource, LexisNexis, Reynolds & Reynolds, and to the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The Dayton area is a great place to live.

Responsibilities:

• Advance academic discourse on applied plant or crop science and international food security on campus, nationally and internationally such as organizing conferences, symposia, institutes, or seminars, and by building partnerships with other experts in the field.
• Conduct and publish high quality research on plant or science and food security.
• Teach one course each semester (or two courses each academic year), on balance, in the College of Arts and Sciences.
• Maintain an active research agenda on campus and at a field site where people’s access to food is otherwise limited or imperiled.
• Mentor University of Dayton students.
• Seek and secure extramural funding to support scholarship and research, student projects and community engaged learning and service in plant science and food security.

• A Ph.D. or international equivalent
• Research that advances food security in developing country settings
• Demonstrated commitment to inclusive excellence in teaching at the undergraduate or graduate level
• Record of successful mentoring of undergraduate students
• Record of collaborative and/or interdisciplinary work
• Record of teaching, scholarship, and service commensurate with the criteria for tenure and appointment at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Dayton. Tenure-track assistant professors whose record is commensurate with the criteria for tenure and appointment at the rank of Associate Professor are eligible to apply.
• Demonstrated record of acquiring extramural research funding.
• Established field research to address food insecurity
• Articulated ability to support the University of Dayton’s commitment to inclusive excellence
• Effective written communication skills

In addition to the above requirements, appointment at the rank of Professor requires a record of teaching, scholarship and service commensurate with the criteria for promotion to the rank of Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Dayton.

Preferable Qualifications

While not everyone may meet all preferred qualifications, the ideal candidate will bring many of the following:

• Sustained record of a research program capable of engaging scientific questions in the area of food security in at-risk areas of the world.
• Experience working collaboratively with various constituencies, especially subsistence farmers in an impoverished region, on real world applications that improve crop yield and quality and food security.
• Successful experience in one or more of the following:
• working synergistically with an international network of collaborators in the areas of plant-microbiome interactions and food security.
• contributing to undergraduate and graduate curriculum development.
• developing experiential learning opportunities related to a candidate’s research interests. 
• Effective interpersonal skills.
• Effective oral communication.
• Commitment to the breadth of educational opportunities, including education of the whole person in the Marianist tradition to support social justice and service to the community, university, and profession.
• Expressed willingness to engage with the Catholic and Marianist values of the University of Dayton 

Applicants should submit:

• a letter of interest that addresses how their record meets the required and any preferred qualifications,
• a curriculum vitae,
• a statement of research that is no more than three pages that includes a description of how the applicant will test and implement their research by working directly with the communities they serve in an impoverished region of the world with the specific goal of improving crop yield and quality in real-world applications that can be repeated and shared with other subsistence farmers ,
• a statement of teaching interest and philosophy of no more than two pages,
• Contact information for three professional references who will be contacted later in the process.

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.  The University does not provide work visa sponsorship for this position

Posting closes at 11:55 PM EDT November 10, 2025.

Informed by its Catholic and Marianist mission, the University is committed to the dignity of every human being. Informed by this commitment, we seek to increase diversity in all of its forms, achieve fair outcomes, and model inclusion across our campus community.The University is committed to policies of affirmative action designed to increase the employment opportunities of individuals with disabilities and protected veterans in compliance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1973.