Dirk Maier, professor and associate head of Purdue University's Department of Agriculture and Biological Engineering, has been tapped to lead Kansas State University's Department of Grain Science and Industry. His duties began April 1.

Maier succeeds former grain science department head Richard "Dicik" Hahn, who came out of retirement last year to serve as interim chief of the department while the university conducted the national search that led to Maier's hiring.

Maier, who has a Ph.D in agricultural engineering from Michigan State University, had been a professor and extension agricultural engineer at Purdue since 1991 and associate head since 2005. He is a Purdue University Faculty Scholar for 2005-2010 and had been a DAAD Guest Professor at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart-Hohenheim, Germany in 2004.

For more information, visit www.grains.ksu.edu.