Kathryn VandenBosch
Dean and Director, University of Wisconsin – Madison, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
![](/documents/speakers/VandenBosch_Kathryn_48AEF12FA0D66.png)
Kathryn VandenBosch became dean of the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences in March 2012. Prior to that, VandenBosch was a professor of plant biology at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. In 2001, she became head of the plant biology department there, but took a brief hiatus in 2006 to serve as interim dean of the newly formed College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. She also served as a member and former chair of the executive committees of both the Faculty Senate and the University Senate. VandenBosch’s research focused on the genetics of plant-microbe interactions and nitrogen fixation in legumes, a family that includes several agriculturally important species. In 2009, VandenBosch was named a fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists.
Prior to her tenure at the University of Minnesota, VandenBosch was a faculty member at Texas A&M University for 12 years. She holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in botany from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and spent time at both UW-Madison and the John Innes Institute in Great Britain as a postdoctoral associate.