Soizik Laguette named chair of ESSP Soizik Laguette, has been named the new chair of Earth System Science and Policy (ESSP) at the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in agricultural engineering at ENGREF (French Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Environmental Engineering), Paris, France. Dr. Laguette has been at UND since 1999, and was a founding member of the ESSP program. Dr. Laguette's research interests involve the use of switchgrass as a bioenergy crop in the Northern Great Plains and the adoption of switchgrass into the traditional cropping system; the rapid integration of remote sensing data into in-field management decisions and the use of satellite data in crop modeling as well as on helping end-users integrate remote sensing data and technology as a tool in land management practices. Dr. Laguette succeeds Rodney Hanley as the chair of the ESSP program. Dr. Hanley took the position of Dean of Science at the University of Winnipeg.