College News

Dean Elde speaks to legislative committees about U bioscience

Bob Elde, CBS dean, spoke to the House Higher Education Finance Committee on Wednesday, March 2, to promote President Bruininks’s bioscience initiatives as part of St. Paul Day at the Capitol.

Dean Bob Elde, left, addresses a legislative committee.

Elde described how much progress the University has made in biological sciences thanks to legislative support for the Molecular and Cellular Biology Initiative, which has resulted in 41 new faculty and two new research buildings. He added that with their continued support, the University could make even more gains in this rapidly developing field over the next few years.

Students are at the heart of this effort, he emphasized. “We provide students with transformative education and research experiences. And they transform the quality of life in Minnesota by using biology to improve human health, agriculture and nutrition, the environment, and the economy.

Elde also testified before several other legislative committees about bioscience and biotechnology during the session.

CBS recruits new associate dean for research from the NIH

Huber Warner, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) research director, is the new associate dean for research at the College of Biological Sciences. In his new role, he will lead research initiatives and graduate programs and help implement CBS’s strategic plan. Warner, formerly a CBS biochemistry professor, left the University to join the NIH where he has held several executive positions for the National Institute of Aging. For the past five years he has been associate director for the Institute’s Biology of Aging Program where he developed new research programs and managed $150 million annually in grants and research contracts. Warner arrived on June 1, 2005.

Move over Texas—Minnesota aims to lead biofuel production

The North Star state hopes to give the Lone Star state a run for its money, at least when it comes to energy. Dean Bob Elde and Richard Hemmingsen, director of the Initiative for
Renewable Energy and the Environment are working to secure $30 million in federal funds to build a national center for biofuels research.

The Minnesota lab, potentially located adjacent to the Cargill Building on the St. Paul campus, would be modeled after the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. It would develop and commercialize technologies that use the state’s agricultural and forest products to produce biofuels and bioproducts.

“Minnesota has the natural, academic, and business resources to become the Texas of the biofuel industry,” Elde says. Minnesota already leads the nation in production of ethanol. Governor Tim Pawlenty endorsed the plan last fall at a press conference where he announced his own plans to develop renewable resources to reduce Minnesota’s dependence on imported oil, strengthen the state’s economy, and protect the environment.

Funds sought to restore two Itasca cabins

CBS has launched a fund-raising campaign to
rebuild two cabins at Lake Itasca Biological
Station and Laboratories.

Cabin 4, a three-bedroom structure built in 1911 from Tamarack logs on a stone foundation, has been one of the most popular cabins among faculty and visiting scientists. But it cannot be salvaged because of structural issues. The plan is to dismantle it and use the logs to construct a winter-proof replica on the same site. The budget for this project is $150,000. Retired professor John Tester, who worked at Itasca for more than 40 years, is leading the fund-raising effort.

The second project is a new cabin for women students to replace Cabin 30, which was condemned and demolished in fall 2004. The budget for this effort is $50,000. CBS plans to
enlist the help of alumni, faculty, staff, and students as volunteers to assist with construction. Itasca Director David Biesboer, professor of plant biology, and Associate
Director Jon Ross, adjunct professor of ecology, evolution, and behavior, will lead volunteer construction crews over two weekends in September.

Funds from the estate of Thomas Morley (a professor of plant biology who died in 2002)
are being used as challenge grants. For information about either project, or to make a contribution, contact development director, Ames Sheldon, at 612-624-9460 or
sheld057@umn.edu

People

Mervyn de Souza (M.S. microbial engineering, 1997, and Ph.D. microbial biochemistry, 1998) has received the Alumni Service Award from the Board of Regents. He was recognized for his contributions as president of the Biological Sciences Alumni Society. De Souza, whose graduate adviser was Larry Wackett, professor and head of microbial biochemistry, is a principal scientist in Cargill’s Biotechnology Development Center. He uses microbial biotechnology to develop new and improved processes for food and bio-based materials.

Reuben Harris (Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics) and George Weiblen (Plant Biology) have been selected as McKnight Land Grant Professors for 2005–07. The two-year awards recognize the University’s most promising junior faculty. Harris studies the role of mutations in human cancers and the use of mutations to destroy pathogens. Weiblen, who joined the plant biology faculty in 2001, is also curator of flowering plants at the Bell Museum. His research concerns biodiversity in tropical rain forests, with an emphasis on the evolution of plant and insect interactions. Weiblen and Harris are among 11 recipients University-wide.

Robin Wright, associate dean for faculty and academic affairs, spoke about undergraduate biology curriculum at a November meeting of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Science Education. The title of her talk was “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Undergraduate Biology.”

David Thomas (Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics) was named William F. Dietrich Professor in July 2004. The full name of this endowed chair is the “William F. Dietrich Land Grant Chair in Fundamental Molecular and Cell Biology in the Basic Sciences.”
Dietrich, who died in 1990, was president and CEO of the Green Giant Company. The first holder of the Dietrich chair was Leonard Banaszak, who carried the title from May 1989 until July 2004, when he began a phased retirement.