The Dean
Robert D. Steele was named dean of Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciencess July 1, 1997. As dean, he is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the college, which serves nearly 3,000 students and employs more than 2,200 faculty and staff in support of the land-grant missions of teaching, research, and cooperative extension. He administers an annual budget of more than $140 million and oversees 12 academic departments.
Steele came to Penn State from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was associate dean for research in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and executive director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station.
The principle areas of Steele's research include amino acids; nitrogen and sulfur metabolism in liver disease; interactions of retinol and one-carbon metabolism; blood-brain barrier transport of nutrients; and ethionine hepatoxicity. He has published numerous articles in such journals as Biochemical Pharmacy, the Journal of Nutrition, the American Journal of Physiology, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Before joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison 1982 as an assistant professor, Steele was assistant professor of nutrition at Rutgers University from 1978 to 1982. He received a B.S. in nutritional sciences and an M.S. in biochemistry and nutrition from the University of Arizona, in 1970 and 1973, respectively. He earned his Ph.D. in nutritional sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978.