Dean Daghir Elected to Dean Emeritus Status

The AUB Board of Trustees in its June 15, 2007, meeting elected former Dean of FAFS Nuhad Daghir to Emeritus Dean status in recognition of his services to the University and his distinguished tenure for over a decade as dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences.

Dean Daghir successfully moved the faculty forward on several fronts. He was instrumental in diversifying programs by adding two new undergraduate programs, one in landscape design and another in food science and management. Under his leadership, the faculty increased its community outreach programs and provided services to several thousand farmers all over Lebanon. The faculty doubled its enrollment during the past five years and increased its research output. About 90 percent of the research conducted now at FAFS is supported by outside funds.

AUB Trustee William R. Coffman in a message to Dean Daghir wrote: "You have brought focus and built programs that are among the best in AUB. I can tell you that many colleges of agriculture in the United States have not managed to do that and under circumstances that have been much less difficult."

Dean Daghir graduated from AUB in 1957 with a BS in agriculture and earned his PhD from Iowa State University. He joined FAFS in 1962 as assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 1967 and to full professor in 1975. He served as chairman of the Animal Science Department in 1973-78, as acting dean of FAFS in 1976-1978, and as associate dean in 1978-1979. Daghir has published over a hundred articles in international journals in the field of animal nutrition and, more recently, on higher agricultural education. He is now working on a second edition of his book, Poultry Production in Hot Climates, to be published at the Cambridge University Press by CAB International in the United Kingdom this year.