April 3, 1997

SFU APPOINTS GEOGRAPHER AS NEW DEAN OF ARTS
A resource geographer who has written extensively about sustainable land use and the varied constraints on world food production is to be Simon Fraser University's next dean of arts.

Dr. John Pierce will succeed incumbent Dr. Evan Alderson for a five-year period beginning this September.

In his book, The Food Resource, which went to a second printing in 1992, Pierce argued that technology is not the sole answer to our need to produce more and better food on a shrinking planet. Solutions are achievable, he maintains, through revamped agricultural policies, land tenure changes, diversified farming and more environmentally sensitive agricultural practices.

An active member of the campus community, Pierce currently serves on the university's senate and is chair of senate's committee on scholarships, awards and bursaries. In 1996 he completed 10 years on the board of SFU's art gallery; for eight of those years, he was board chair.

As an expert in sustainable land development and community economic development, Pierce has been appointed to a number of key regional and national bodies. He is currently a member of the economic development committee of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce and is a founding member of the Canadian Consortium for Research on Sustainable Development. From 1993-95, he served on a federal government Green Plan panel adjudicating and encouraging cross-disciplinary environmental research and he continues to serve as a reviewer of programs funded by it.