Basic Science Leadership Changes
Dear Colleagues,
As 2009 comes to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you well and to announce these important changes for senior leadership within the departments of Cell and Developmental Biology and Cancer Biology. These changes are effective January 1.
First, I would like to address leadership changes within the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology.
In order to better address increasing responsibilities in her role as the associate vice chancellor for Research and senior associate dean for Biomedical Sciences, Susan Wente has decided to step down as chair of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology after serving in this role since 2002.
Under Susan’s leadership Cell and Developmental Biology has recruited and retained a number of highly sought faculty, nurtured cross-campus collaborations, and helped launch many new research initiatives. The department’s extramural research grant portfolio increased nearly 73 percent during this time. Of great importance, she also devoted critical effort to mentoring faculty, students and fellows and developing new programs to support these endeavors. With Susan’s stewarding, the department’s contributions to our graduate and medical education efforts have grown. In fact, the number of department graduate students has expanded from 45 to 85 over the past 7 years.
Susan will continue to serve actively as professor within the department and oversee her NIH-funded research program. I am grateful for her service to the department and her willingness to continue leading initiatives on an institutional level.
We are quite fortunate that Bill Tansey, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, has agreed to take over as the department’s interim chair.
Bill was recently recruited to VUMC and is fully prepared to handle this transition given his prior leadership roles directing the Watson School of Biological Sciences at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and his current efforts as co-leader of the VICC Genome Maintenance Program and scientific director of the Vanderbilt Microarray Shared Resource. Bill’s internationally recognized research program uses model systems to study mechanisms of transcriptional regulation. I am most pleased to welcome Bill to this key position within our leadership.
Secondly, please join me in welcoming home Lynn Matrisian as she returns from a scholarly leave to resume her service as chair of Cancer Biology.
As many of you know, Lynn and Vanderbilt were honored by the National Cancer Institute’s invitation to Lynn to serve on the NCI’s Translational Research Working Group. This important endeavor has resulted in the creation of Translational Research Advisory Committees (internal and external to NIH), a new system for coding translational grants, and the inception of an annual meeting of more than 800 translational cancer researchers.
The Working Group also initiated a new process to identify translational research opportunities which merit acceleration and developed a new funding mechanism for these opportunities (“STRAPs” — Special Translational Research Acceleration Projects). The first cycle of applications and awards is now unfolding, and Lynn will continue to assist the Working Group in guiding this process over the next year. I am thrilled that Lynn has represented Vanderbilt in helping to shape the national vision for translational cancer research.
I want to offer special thanks also to Hal Moses for so ably serving as interim chair during Lynn’s service at NCI. The department and Medical Center have been fortunate indeed in benefitting from this latest example of Hal’s leadership and service to Vanderbilt.
Please join me in offering Susan, Bill, Lynn, and Hal congratulations and appreciation for their past and future contributions to Vanderbilt.
Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season. I expect that 2010 will provide us with many opportunities to extend VUMC’s ever-growing record of contributions.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey R. Balser, M.D., Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs
Dean, School of Medicine
Vanderbilt University Medical Center