Nathan Slaton appointed assistant director of Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

Nathan Slaton, head of the Arkansas Soil Testing Lab, has been appointed assistant director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the statewide research component of the University of Arkansas System’s Division of Agriculture. The appointment is effective July 1.

“I am thrilled about Dr. Slaton’s willingness to become a full-time member of the Agricultural Experiment Station’s administrative team,” Jean-Francois Meullenet, director of the experiment station, said in a news release “Nathan’s experience in production agriculture and his knowledge of our statewide facilities will be invaluable to me as we make investments in our research infrastructure, develop strategies to increase research funding in the Division of Agriculture and maximize our impact in Arkansas and beyond.”

Slaton, a professor in crops soils and environmental science, had been serving as an assistant director, part-time, for the Experiment Station since 2016. As full-time assistant director, he will retain leadership at the soil test lab, as well as overseeing all of the Division of Agriculture’s analytical testing services. Additionally, he will be acting as administrative liaison for some of the state’s commodity boards as well as the Division of Agriculture’s stations dedicated to research.

Slaton succeeds Rick Roeder, who retires June 30 after 16 years as associate director.

“Since Nathan joined the division in 1989 as an extension agent, he has demonstrated strength in every phase of his career with us — through all three land grant missions of teaching research and extension,” said Mark Cochran, vice president-agriculture for the University of Arkansas System and head of the system’s Division of Agriculture. “Over the past few years, Nathan clearly demonstrated the qualities of a leader who can keep the experiment station strong for the people we serve.

Slaton is an Indiana native. He earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy at Murray State and a masters and PhD in agronomy at the University of Arkansas.