In a thick rainforest in Papua New Guinea, they're tracking bats. Researchers glue radio transmitters to the creatures’ little, furry bodies, then wait. And wait. When a bat flits to another position, the humans sprint through the foliage, stop and take a reading.
It’s 1 a.m. The researchers will do this all night, running from spot to spot, triangulating the bats’ movements. Logging data.
Having a blast.
“It’s just fun, right?” Betsy Dumont said, recounting a moment lived on the way to becoming one of the world’s top bat biologists. “It’s hard and it’s fun.”
(Note: The transmitters eventually fall off, leaving the bats unharmed.)
Dumont has added many things to her resume since that fieldwork in tropical Oceania in the mid-’90s. While continuing to expand her (and, by extension, our) knowledge of the mammalian order chiroptera, she logged 16 years researching, teaching and then rising through academic administration at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
Then came a big move across the U.S. to become the School of Natural Sciences dean at the UC’s first new campus in four decades. Since 2017, Dumont has guided the UC Merced school with a personal emphasis on building coalitions, thoughtful change management and transparency.
Along the way, she has continued to feed her passion for ballet, pushing herself through twice-weekly, 75-minute sessions at the Merced Academy of Dance. She helps her husband serve as co-host of one of the sweetest Airbnb cottages you’ll find within an hour’s drive of Yosemite.
And soon – April 1, to be precise – she officially assumes the role of executive vice chancellor and provost. She is the fifth person – and first woman – to hold the permanent position as UC Merced's No. 2 executive leader, its chief academic officer.
“It is a testament to Dr. Dumont’s demonstrated leadership and abilities that, after a rigorous national search, she was the ideal choice for this pivotal position,” Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz said.
Marjorie Zatz has held the position in an interim role since June 2023, taking over after Gregg Camfield stepped down after five years at the job. Dumont takes stewardship of an up-and-rising research institution with more than 320 Senate faculty members, annual research expenditures topping $48 million, and a list of big plans and big challenges.
It’s been a while since Dumont tromped regularly through branches and vines in Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea and Panama to catch flying mammals. Fieldwork opportunities shrank as she assumed leadership roles at UMass, followed by her years as School of Natural Sciences dean. She keeps her hands in it, though. She supports a graduate student on bat research. And once a year, she and fellow bat biologists gather in Belize to exchange findings, catch a few bats and soak in some camaraderie.
