Feng Sheng Hu will serve as Washington University’s next dean of the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences, July 1, Chancellor Andrew Martin announced today.

The announcement is the result of a nearly year-long search, when current dean of faculty Barbara Schaal announced last March that the 2019-2020 school year would be her last in the position.

Hu has served as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2017 and has served as a faculty member in the geology and plant biology departments there since 1998. In addition to Hu’s new position as faculty dean, he will also work as a Biology and Earth and Planetary Sciences professor.

He received his undergraduate degree in biology from Xiamen University in China, going on to receive a master’s degree in botany from the University of Maine and then earning a doctorate in ecosystem science from the University of Washington.

Hu’s academic works have been published over 130 times, being featured in publications such as Nature and Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and he has served on editorial boards for several journals. He has also secured research funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation.

In light of his scholarly achievements, Hu will also be named as an endowed chair as soon as he arrives at the University.