Coastal Carolina University President Ronald R. Ingle has announced that Valgene L. Dunham, dean of Coastal's College of Natural and Applied Sciences, will serve as interim provost from May 15 until the conclusion of the 2002 fall semester.

According to Ingle, a national search for a permanent provost is under way. The appointment of an interim dean for the College of Natural and Applied Sciences will be announced in the coming weeks. Sally Horner, executive vice president at Coastal, will continue as interim provost until May 15.

Dunham, who also serves as president of the South Carolina Academy of Science, joined the Coastal faculty in 1995. Prior to joining Coastal, Dunham was a professor of biology and head of the Department of Biology at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. He also served on the board of the Kentucky Academy of Science and was director of the Kentucky Junior Academy of Science from 1992 to 1995. Dunham was associated with the State University of New York at Fredonia from 1973 to 1985, where he served in several capacities including professor of biology, acting chair of the Department of Biology, research associate in the Environmental Resources Center and coordinator of the recombinant gene technology program.

Dunham earned a bachelor's of science degree in general science in 1962 from Houghton College in Houghton, N.Y., and a master's degree in general science in 1965 and a Ph.D. in botany in 1969, both from Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y. He conducted post-doctoral research from 1969 to 1973 at Purdue University.