The July 7 front page of the Register-Guard features a story about the successes at the UO’s Institute of Molecular Biology that led to it being selected as one of 10 areas for the Clusters of Excellence Faculty Hiring process.

The initiative by Provost Scott Coltrane aims to increase the number of world-renown faculty in key fields in the coming years to the university.  Ken Prehoda, director of the institute, was interviewed along with Brad Nolen, who is co-leading the Life at the Nanoscale cluster hire process. The article is part of a series of stories on the topic.

The interdisciplinary work by the institute and the UO’s focus on strategic faculty hiring is making impressions with new faculty hires, including Diana Libuda, ahead of the official hiring program.

From the story:

“Libuda saw the forthcoming cluster hires as sign that the University of Oregon is going somewhere she would like to be.

“‘Oregon’s desire to strive for excellence and constantly seeking of ways to improve was invigorating and wonderful,’ she said in a telephone interview from Stanford.

“Libuda saw that, even as a junior faculty member at the UO, she could have a hand in shaping the university.

            “’That highly influenced my decision to go to Oregon,” she said.”

-- By Julie Brown, Public Affairs Communications