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As the new dean of the College of Human Sciences, Michael Delp's top priority is simple: align his college's strategic plan with the university's goals to maintain pre-eminence within the state of Florida and move into the top 25 of national public universities.

"A number of those metrics involve doing a great job with training graduate students, building the research productivity of our faculty and increasing our federal grants," he said.

As Florida State's fourth-largest college, Human Sciences is in a position to contribute substantially to these efforts, according to Delp.

"What I would like is for this college to really contribute to these things in a big way," he said. "For me, that is one thing that I am really excited about — working with the faculty to accomplish these goals."

Since his arrival on campus in March, Delp has been largely focused on evaluating the college's finances to include ways to invest in its research infrastructure.

"This will allow us to be more competitive for grant funding and to attract faculty members who will be research-productive," he said. "We want to provide a competitive place for them to work."

Delp's financial evaluation includes taking a hard look at the college's budget, from finding ways to use current resources more effectively and leveraging those to gain additional ones. He is also looking at areas that need improvement or that could be de-emphasized.

"Sometimes those require hard decisions," he said. "Its helpful that the university seems to be having some recovery from the budget cuts that have occurred over the past seven years."

Using some of its share of pre-eminence funding and with an eye on the university's push toward the top 25, Delp says the college will be advertising in the fall for three faculty positions in exercise physiology and one position in the areas of food, nutrition and exercise science.

"Exercise science is one of our fastest growing majors, so faculty in this discipline will help meet student demand," Delp said. "These faculty members, who tend to be engaged in biomedical research, meet a number of our priorities. They are STEM faculty who will generate grant funding and who will be research-productive, in addition to meeting a demand and need of our students."

Nationally recognized for his research in the effects of physical activity associated with aging, space flight and diseases such as diabetes on the cardiovascular system, Delp plans to remain active as a researcher. He is currently working on two projects funded by NASA that examine the phenomenon of physical deconditioning in space.

"We've found that deconditioning in space is very similar to the deconditioning that is associated with aging and has many similarities to the physical inactivity that is associated with obesity and diabetes," he said.

"As an exercise physiologist, and having done this kind of research, I understand the health challenges that are faced within the state and across the country."

With five months as dean under his belt, Delp says he has enjoyed getting to know the people of the College of Human Sciences over that time.

"We have a highly qualified faculty and staff, and I've been very impressed with the alumni of Florida State," he said. "They're proud of this university's athletics accomplishments, but I sense that they are also proud of the university's designation by the state as a pre-eminent university and eager for the university to really push academics to become a top 25 public university.

"I believe this is something they will continue to support through their giving to the university."

Before to joining Florida State's faculty, Delp served as chair of the Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology at the University of Florida. In addition, he has held faculty positions at West Virginia University's School of Medicine and at Texas A&M University's Department of Health and Kinesiology.

Delp earned a doctorate in exercise physiology from the University of Georgia. Afterward, he served as the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Konstanz in Konstanz, Germany, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Missouri.

By Jeffery Seay
31 July 2014