Texas Tech professor to lead MSU College of Natural and Applied Sciences

provided by Missouri State University

Magdalena Toda, a professor at Texas Tech University, has been named the next dean of Missouri State University’s College of Natural and Applied Sciences.

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For the first time since 2006, Missouri State University’s College of Natural and Applied Sciences will have a new dean.

Magdalena Toda, a professor at Texas Tech University, will succeed longtime dean Tamera Jahnke, who is retiring June 30 after nearly four decades as a professor, department head, acting provost and dean.

Toda starts the new role July 1. Her salary will be $198,000.

“Dr. Toda brings a wealth of experience, energy and dedication to this role,” said Clarenda Phillips, provost and vice president for academic affairs at MSU, in a news release. “I’m confident in her ability to lead the next chapter of the CNAS story.”

Headquartered in Blunt Hall, the College of Natural and Applied Sciences includes more than 20 undergraduate and 12 graduate programs along with a cooperative engineering program offered through a partnership with the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Toda has been a professor of mathematics and statistics at Texas Tech University and has served as department chair and program director in applied mathematics for the National Science Foundation. She also co-authored a calculus textbook.

As chair, Toda helped increase the department’s external funding from about $200,000 to more than $10 million and grew graduate enrollment by almost 70%, according to the release. She led revisions of doctoral, master’s level and certificate programs in the math department, and founded the Math Postdoctoral Scholar Program.

“Everything we do, from scientific discovery in the laboratory to mathematical research on paper or through computer-assisted methods, is ultimately done with students, for students and through students,” Toda said in the release. “Education and mentorship remain at the heart of meaningful research and innovation.”

She was named an Association for Women in Mathematics Fellow in 2025 and received Texas Tech’s President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2008.

Her doctorates are from the University of Kansas and the Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania.