College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Double duty

Douglas Bonett moves into chair's post in the Department of Psychology.
Since his arrival at Iowa State in 1998, Douglas Bonett has split his duties equally between the Department of Psychology and the Department of Statistics.

That assignment won't change in 2005-06 despite Bonett being named interim chair of the Department of Psychology, replacing Craig Anderson, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences and professor of psychology. Anderson served as department chair for six years.

Bonett usually teaches the equivalent of two classes in each of his two departments.

"I will continue to teach two classes in statistics and try to maintain my program of statistics research, but all of my time in psychology will now be devoted to administrative work," he said.

Bonett stepped into his new role in early August, just a few short weeks before the start of the fall semester. While the transition period is short, there are a number of reasons why Bonett isn't too worried about the lack of time to prepare before classes began.

"Craig will continue to work with me after he steps down," Bonett said. "And that will make the transition much easier."

Bonett also feels his strong relationship with faculty in the department will play in his favor. The professor of psychology and statistics has served as a statistical consultant to psychology faculty since his arrival on campus.

"I help with the design and analysis of their studies and often help with the statistical and design components of their grant proposals," he said. "I have already worked with many of the faculty on some very difficult projects, and I hope that working with them on departmental issues will be much easier."

During the one year Bonett serves as the interim chair of the department, he and the faculty will focus their efforts on major projects such as faculty searches, the external department review, and tenure/promotion cases while maintaining the department's very high level of teaching and research productivity.

Prior to coming to Iowa State, Bonett was on the faculty at the University of Wyoming and served as an interim associate dean in that institution's College of Business for a year.

He has also been on the faculty at the University of Southern California and worked as a senior statistician for Blue Cross Plans of California.