Nicole Buan, Amanda Ramer-Tait and Brian Wardlow have been named acting associate deans of the Agricultural Research Division at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
The three part-time appointments will help advance strategic research opportunities, strengthen collaboration and support ARD operations during a leadership transition. Each will serve at 0.3 FTE, assuming responsibilities previously held by the interim dean and director of ARD.
Thirteen faculty members stepped forward through a recent nomination process for the acting associate dean appointments. Buan, Ramer-Tait and Wardlow were selected to help advance emerging opportunities, build on existing research strengths and strengthen collaboration across IANR, the University of Nebraska System and with external partners.
Nicole Buan
Buan, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry, will lead efforts to advance innovation and growth in Nebraska’s bioeconomy.
Her research focuses on renewable energy, bioproducts, and synthetic biology. Her laboratory studies biological methane production and how that knowledge can be applied to create renewable energy and other bioproducts. Her work draws on areas including microbial physiology, biochemistry, genetics and genomics, and synthetic biology.
Buan earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and microbiology from the University of Arizona and a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She completed postdoctoral training in microbiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Amanda Ramer-Tait
Ramer-Tait, a professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology, will focus on building connections across agriculture, food and medicine that improves human health while expanding partnerships with the University of Nebraska Medical Center and other strategic collaborators.
She is a founding member of the Nebraska Food for Health Center and leads the Nebraska Gnotobiotic Mouse Program, a resource for studying how the gut microbiome influences health and disease. Her research investigates how diet and gut microbes interact with the body and the potential for harnessing these relationships to improve human health.
Ramer-Tait earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Western Kentucky University and a doctorate in immunobiology from Iowa State University, where she also completed postdoctoral training in immunology, microbiology and parasitology.
Brian Wardlow
Wardlow, a professor in the School of Natural Resources and director of the Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies, will focus on spatial sciences and their integration with the bioeconomy, digital agriculture, natural resources, human health and prosperity, and artificial intelligence.
His research focuses on remote sensing and geographic information systems and their applications in agriculture and natural resource management, including drought monitoring, climate-vegetation dynamics, plant stress response and land-use and land-cover change.
Wardlow has served as director of the Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies since 2012. He also is a faculty fellow with the National Drought Mitigation Center and the Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute and faculty partner with the Doctor of Plant Health Program.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in geography from Northwest Missouri State University, a master’s degree in geography from Kansas State University and a doctorate in geography from the University of Kansas. He also served as a NASA Earth System Science graduate ressearch fellow during his doctoral program. He is a native of Falls City, Neb. And still actively involved in farming in southeast Nebraska.
The appointments come as ARD continues to strengthen research and innovation across agriculture, food systems, the bioeconomy, natural resources, digital agriculture, the environment, grasslands, human and rural health, and economic well-being.
As IANR’s research arm, ARD supports research that addresses critical challenges facing Nebraska and beyond. That work extends from discovery to practical solutions that improve lives, strengthen communities, support Nebraska producers and businesses, and create economic value across the state.
