Campus Connection

Mark Sandheinrich is next dean of College of Science and Health

A long-time biology professor and researcher at UW-La Crosse will become the next dean of the university’s College of Science and Health. Mark Sandheinrich, who has served as interim dean of the college for nearly two years, has been named the new dean following a nationwide search. “The key element when hiring a dean is to choose a person who will best serve the college and the university as a whole,” says Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Betsy Morgan in making the appointment. “Mark displays the commitment to collaboration that is key to a complex college such as CSH. He is a quiet leader but one who has already provided innovation in an interim period, and he will lead in a direction indicated by listening to the faculty and staff of the college. In Mark, the campus community and the committee saw integrity and accomplishment.” Sandheinrich earned a doctorate and master’s in science in fisheries biology from Iowa State University and a bachelor’s in science in ecology, ethology and evolution from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has 30 years of experience and more than 40 publications on aquatic ecology and on the effects of contaminants in aquatic systems. He has worked at UWL since 1988. Sandheinrich recently served as an invited participant in the Great Lakes Mercury Project – a large, regionally based science synthesis of mercury across the Great Lakes basin funded by the Great Lakes Air Deposition Program. He also was an invited expert panelist on effects of methylmercury on fish, birds and wildlife for the International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant and a guest editor for a special issue of the journal Ecotoxicology on the effects of methyl mercury on wildlife. He continues to conduct research with students on mercury contamination.