Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Rebecca Klaper has accepted the position of Dean for the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences (SFS) effective July 1, 2023. With 20 years at UWM, Rebecca brings a wealth of experience and institutional knowledge to the role. She joined UWM as an Endowed Shaw Scientist and was one of the founding faculty of SFS. Rebecca currently serves as a Professor and Interim Dean of the School of Freshwater Sciences and Founding Director of the SFS Great Lakes Genomics Center. She previously served as Vice Dean and chair of the Executive Committee and the Planning and Governance Committees in SFS.

Rebecca earned her Ph.D. in Ecology from the Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia. She is an accomplished scientist and a well-known expert in the fields of emerging contaminants, nanomaterial toxicology, and ecotoxicology. Her research also investigates the mechanisms by which certain species are more sensitive to stressors such as contaminants. Rebecca received a highly competitive US-UK Fulbright Scholarship, an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)-Science and Technology Policy Fellowship, and she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Rebecca has held leadership roles in several environmental science organizations, as elected chair of the Environmental Nanotechnology Gordon Research Conference and as associate editor and editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry journals. She has published more than 70 publications and has obtained more than $4.7 million in funding for her work.

I would like to extend my thanks to the Search and Screen Committee, chaired by Valerică Raicu, for their hard work in selecting an excellent pool of candidates.

Take care,
Scott