Talk from Tom

Dear Alumni, Colleagues and Friends of Biochemistry,

Season’s greetings and best wishes for the new year! The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics is doing well on all fronts. Our research funding continues to expand, faculty are receiving much deserved recognition for excellence in teaching, and our outreach programs are receiving local as well as national acclaim.

The past several years have seen a number of changes. Matt Cordes, Megan McEvoy, and Nancy Horton have joined the department as assistant professors, and are progressing exceedingly well in developing their research programs and teaching portfolios. Michael Wells is now Regents Professor, and Bill Montfort, Professor. As a result, there are no longer any associate professors within the Department!

The Biochemistry Faculty continue to excel in teaching. The Medical Biochemistry course has again won the outstanding Basic Science Course of the Year award, and several of the faculty received individual recognition. We are exceedingly proud of the quality of their efforts.

We have added an undergraduate laboratory course to the curriculum, which is receiving rave reviews from the students. It reinforces information from the lecture series, and enhances the students’ ability to excel in independent senior thesis research. All indications are that the laboratory course, developed by Drs. Jim Hazzard and Mike Cusanovich, serves a real need and is a valuable component of the undergraduate biochemistry experience.

Despite the outstanding recent progress in the Department, and the academic excellence which has been our hallmark, all is not perfect. We, as well as most state universities in the country, are suffering budget cuts. Were it not for the outstanding grantsmanship of the faculty of Biochemistry, we would be in serious trouble. However, thanks to very strong extramural grant support, the department is surviving the current budget storms with comparatively minor difficulty. We expect the budget situation to turn around over the next 12 to 18 months. If this timing is accurate, the department will survive in good form.

On a brighter note, the department is currently recruiting to 2 new faculty positions. We have interviewed eight candidates for the two positions; the pool is excellent and we are optimistic that we will be able to recruit 2 outstanding new colleagues. Also, Megan McEvoy has assumed the responsibilities of Graduate Coordinator and is busily working to establish a strong, vibrant graduate program for the faculty of biochemistry. Bill Montfort’s application to the National Institutes of Health for a Biology-Chemistry Interface Training Program is likely to be funded, assuming that Congress passes a budget some time soon! Bill has forged a three-way collaboration involving Chemistry and the Medicinal Chemistry group in Pharmacy to form the Biological Chemistry Program. The BCP is recruiting students for its third class, and if the training grant is funded, Bill and colleagues will be much more competitive for the best students in the applicant pool.

In closing, the state budget difficulties constitute a significant source of worry. Nonetheless, the department remains an exciting place to work, and we are moving ahead with all deliberate speed to further strengthen its programs. Our ability to weather the storm is clearly due to an outstanding faculty that works well as a team. My heartfelt thanks to each of them!!

Tom