Mary S. Hubbard of Kansas State University is the second woman to lead USU’s College of Science. She officially assumes her post as dean on July 1. 

As head of the geology department at Kansas State, Hubbard helped found two interdisciplinary teaching and research centers that are unique to higher education in the United States: the Center for the Understanding of Origins, which intermingles the hard sciences with the humanities in an examination of the origins of the universe, humans and language, among other subjects; and the similarly multi-faceted African Studies Center.

A Chicago native, Hubbard earned her bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Colorado and completed her doctorate at MIT. She caught the rock hound bug as a child. “My family spent many a summer vacation in the West, and my father was interested in science. Some of my earliest memories are of crawling around old mines and picking up rocks and taking them home.”

Her specialty is structural geology and tectonics, and she has completed field research in Senegal, New Zealand, France, Pakistan, Nepal and throughout the American West.

 “My travels have shaped my views,” Hubbard says. “I’m a strong believer in international education. From business to science to politics, it’s more important than ever to understand other cultures.”

Her vision for USU’s College of Science will be shaped in consultation with each of the college’s six academic departments. “I want to know their priorities, strengths and weaknesses first, their challenges,” she says.

She is as excited about working with alumni as she is with a faculty that she describes as highly productive and accomplished.

Hubbard emerged as the top choice from a pool of 125 candidates who were screened by the search committee representing faculty, students and staff. Hubbard succeeds another geologist, Don Fiesinger, who has served as dean for seven years and is resuming his teaching and research.

“She will be a firm advocate for her college who also thinks about what’s good for Utah State University,” says Nat Frazier, dean of the College of Natural Resources who chaired the search committee. “She’s attentive, engaged. She’s the kind of person you’d want to invite to your birthday party.”