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So What is the New Chair All About?
04/17/2005
Molecular & Cellular Physiology got a fresh injection of leadership with the appointment of professor and chairman, Marshall (Chip) Montrose, PhD, in July 2004. Now that Chip has had time to settle in, we asked him about his vision for MCP.
I have been honored to join a department that has such a wonderful history of achievement and prominence, with excellent intellectual resources for evolving with the newly revitalized field of physiology. I joined MCP in July 2004, arriving with a strong drive to improve both our teaching and research endeavors.
The first year will be consumed with setting the stage. Our immediate future will require us to optimize our existing resources, a necessary step to strengthen our position to advance. Here we have recruited an outstanding new set of talent to our business office, are making sure we are using our research space efficiently, and need to confirm that we invest time appropriately in the missions of teaching and research. We are also developing new infrastructure resources, such as the development of the Live Microscopy Core (with new two-photon and confocal microscopes), obtaining a Li-Cor Odyssey infrared imager, and installing two interactive "smart-board" projector systems to enhance teaching from a digital format.
We have also been using the first year to start laying the groundwork for expanding our teaching into exciting new areas. The core curriculum of our PhD Program in Systems Biology and Physiology has been streamlined, and new coursework is being devloped to both enhance this core experience, and develop new areas of training in the areas of system biology that intersect with Physiology (translational research, network systems, functional genomics). We are also developing a one-year MS in Physiology Program designed to help college graduates improve their credentials for entry to medical school. This will include taking a set of first-year medical student courses that are the strongest predictors of success in medical school, as well as some graduate courses. Finally, in a collaboration with the College of Applied Sciences, we are working on an Associate's degree in Life Science (Biotechnology). This program will take talented high school students and train them in modern biomedical research methods, providing a workforce for the Tri-State area and allowing students to sample the waters of biomedical research as a potential prelude to gathering a more advanced degree.
It's exciting, but the real fun is yet to come. While we have recruited one new faculty to join us already (Dr Bryan Mackenzie), we are now embarking on a major recruitment effort to bring in a large cadre of junior and mid-level faculty. We will build thematically on existing strengths of both our Department and our Institution, but the precise balance remains to be determined. This is because each recruit offers a different set of strengths, and fits differently into the matrix of how their career can be expanded by joining us and how we can benefit by having them here. That complexity is what makes recruiting fun and challenging.
Chip Montrose
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