Robert A. Wharton, SD School of Mines President Robert A. Wharton, Ph.D., became the eighteenth president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology on July 1, 2008. President Wharton’s leadership and scientific career spans several decades in academe, federal service, and the private sector. He received his Ph.D. in botany from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and his B.A. in botany and M.A. in biology from Humboldt State University. He has attended the Harvard Institute for Educational Management and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford Executive Program, and has served as the executive officer for the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs in the federal government’s Senior Executive Service. Having participated in 11 expeditions to the Antarctic, President Wharton is a recipient of the United States Antarctic Service Medal and has served on the National Research Council’s Polar Research Board. He has been a visiting senior scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.; an executive vice president for the Institute of Management Studies in Reno, Nevada; and vice president for research, and research professor at the Desert Research Institute. Prior to joining the School of Mines, President Wharton served as provost and vice president for academic affairs, and chief research officer at Idaho State University. He is currently advising the Secretary of Energy as an appointee to the National Coal Council and is a member of the Council on Competitiveness. President Wharton serves as co-chair of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) Energy Forum and also initiated and leads a national effort under the auspices of the APLU involving 21 U.S. universities focused on re-establishing a federal role in mining research and development. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Geographical Society, and the Explorers Club, as well as a member of Sigma Xi.
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