Kay Bailey Hutchison, Honorary Chairman
United States Senator (R-TX)
In 1993, Kay Bailey Hutchison was elected as the first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate. Seven years later, more than four million Texans re-elected her to a second full term - the largest number of votes ever garnered in the state. In 2001 she was elected Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, becoming one of the top five leaders of Senate Republicans, and the only woman.
Senator Hutchison grew up in La Marque, Texas , and graduated from the University of Texas and UT Law School. She was twice elected to the Texas House of Representatives. In 1990, she was elected Texas State Treasurer, where she trimmed her agency's budget more than any other state official while increasing returns on Texas' investments to an historic $1 billion annually.
She spearheaded the successful fight against a state income tax and to put a cap on the state debt.
The Senator's heritage in Texas is historic. Thomas Rusk of Nacogdoches was the first Texan to serve in the U.S. Senate seat she currently holds. He and the Senator's great-great-grandfather, Charles S. Taylor, were friends and both signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. The Senator lives in Dallas with her husband, Ray, an attorney, and their daughter, Bailey, and son, Houston.
Dr. Michael S. Brown, TAMEST Founding Co-Chairman
Professor of Molecular Genetics and Internal Medicine
Paul J. Thomas Chair in Medicine
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Michael S. Brown received a B.A. degree in Chemistry in 1962 and an M.D. degree in 1966 from the University of Pennsylvania. He was an intern and resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and a post doctoral fellow with Dr. Earl Stadtman at the National Institutes of Health. In 1971, he came to Dallas where he rose through the ranks to become a professor in 1976.
He is currently Paul J. Thomas Professor of Molecular Genetics and Director of the Jonsson Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Dr. Brown is also a member of the Board of Directors of Pfizer, Inc. and is Chairman of its Science and Technology Committee. Dr. Brown and his long-time colleague, Dr. Joseph L. Goldstein, together discovered the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor, which controls the level of cholesterol in blood and in cells. They showed that mutations in this receptor cause Familial Hypercholesterolemia, a disorder that leads to premature heart attacks in one out of every 500 people in most populations. Their work laid the theoretical groundwork for the development of a class of drugs called statins that block cholesterol synthesis, increase LDL receptors, lower blood cholesterol and prevent heart attacks. Statins are taken daily by more than 20 million people worldwide. Brown and Goldstein have received many awards for this work, including the U.S. National Medal of Science and the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology.
Dr. David E. Daniel, President
President
The University of Texas at Dallas
Dr. Daniel’s professional work has focused on environmental controls for contaminated land and groundwater. He has published over 100 technical articles and authored or edited five books. His work has been recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers, which awarded him its highest award for papers published in its journals (the Norman Medal) and on two separate occasions awarded him its second highest award, the Croes Medal. He has taught more than 125 continuing education and training courses on environmental controls, which have been attended by more than 15,000 engineers and scientists. In 2000, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the nation’s highest recognition for engineering achievement.
In 2005 and 2006, he served as Chair of the External Review Panel of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which was charged by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with review of the government’s work in identifying facts surrounding the performance of New Orleans’ levees during Hurricane Katrina, and to advise on the causes of failure and the adequacy of the levees to resist flooding from future hurricanes.
While Dr. Daniel was serving as Dean, the University of Illinois' College of Engineering rose in national rankings to No. 4, trailing only MIT, Stanford, and California-Berkeley, and also opened a new $80M computer science center in addition to launching a new Department of Bioengineering. As President of UTD, Daniel has initiated a broadly inclusive strategic planning process, scaled up UTD’s development and communications programs, reconfigured several key leadership positions, overseen continued growth of the institution’s academic and research programs, launched a campus beautification project, and worked with the DFW community to build new partnerships.
Dr. J. Tinsley Oden, Past President
Associate Vice President for Research Engineering
Director, ICES
The University of Texas at Austin
J. Tinsley Oden earned his Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from The Oklahoma State University in 1962. He has served on faculty of The University of Texas at Austin since 1973 and previously served as chair of the Department of Engineering Mechanics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and also taught at Oklahoma State University.
Dr. Oden is director of the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, and holds the Cockrell Family Regents' Chair in Engineering No. 2. He develops mathematical theories and implements computational models of problems in fluid mechanics, nonlinear solid mechanics, physics and molecular systems. He has helped develop computer models and algorithms to implement theories that solve a wide range of problems, from automobile design to manufacturing processes to surgical procedures. Dr. Oden is currently the principal investigator for a project studying the use of computer methods to improve the effectiveness of laser therapy for prostate cancer.
Dr. Oden has authored or co-authored over 500 scientific essays, book chapters and refereed journal articles, including over 50 books and monographs. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering in the United States , Mexico and Brazil . Dr. Oden has served as president of the Society of Engineering Science, the American Academy of Mechanics, and the International Association of Computational Mechanics.
Universities in Portugal , Belgium , Poland and France have awarded Dr. Oden with honorary doctoral degrees. He also received a knighthood as "Chevalier de l'ordre des Palmes Academiques" from the French Government. Dr. Oden was listed as one of the most highly-cited researchers in the world for 1981-1999 by the Institute for Scientific Information. Dr. Oden serves on the editorial boards of over twenty scientific journals and is an Editor of Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering.
Dr. Francisco G. Cigarroa, Vice President
Chancellor
The University of Texas System
Dr. Francisco Cigarroa’s academic career began at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in 1995 focused on the disciplines of pediatric surgery and multi-organ transplantation. His research interests, while active in pediatric surgery, were centered on the role of fetal growth inhibitors affecting the growth of targeted neoplasms. In the area of transplantation, his focus was on improving the number of available organ donors through splitting techniques and living related liver donors all aimed at saving children’s lives. During his tenure as a full-time surgeon at the Health Science Center, he revived academic pediatric surgery and started the pediatric multi-organ transplantation program including intestinal transplants. He has published in peer review journals in these surgical disciplines.
In 2000, Dr. Cigarroa was appointed President of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He has focused much of his attention on growing the research strengths of the University with a more than doubling of its sponsored research since 2000 and has established a world recognized aging research institute and imaging center. He has also markedly increased the amount of modern research space. In addition, Dr. Cigarroa has focused much of his attention on addressing access to health professional education as well as health disparities resulting in the establishment of regional health campuses in Laredo, Edinburg, and Harlingen, Texas. These efforts have resulted in national recognition. Last year, the Health Science Center was recognized as the number one public institution in the continental United States in relation to Hispanic graduates from medical school. Dr. Cigarroa is recognized for increasing the Health Science Center’s success across education, clinical service and research throughout South Texas. He remains an active transplantation surgeon.
The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) awarded Dr. Cigarroa its highest university award, the Dr. Ignacio Chavez Medal of Merit. Cigarroa was also inducted into the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico in 2006.
Dr. William R. Brinkley, Secretary
Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. Brinkley's career in cell biology and academic medicine spans a period of over 40 years. His research has focused largely on tumor cell biology with emphasis on the structural and molecular basis of mitosis and chromosomes stability/instability in normal and cancer cell division. His laboratory carried out pioneering work on mitotic spindle assembly and function and regulation. He and his laboratory developed and perfected many techniques for light and electron microscopy and are credited largely with pioneering the first use of immunofluorescence to identify dynamics of cytoskeletal proteins in ekaryotic cells, especially the tubulin/microtubules components of the mitotic spindle and cytoplasmic complex. In addition to research and education, his service has been largely involved with science policy and advocacy at the local, state and national level to encourage students and colleagues to become "good citizens of science" at every opportunity.
Dr. John Mendelsohn, Treasurer
President
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
John Mendelsohn, M.D. earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemical sciences magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1958. While there, he was the first undergraduate student of James D. Watson, Ph.D., who later won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for identifying the structure of DNA.
After spending a year in Scotland as a Fulbright Scholar, Mendelsohn received his medical degree cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1963. Between 1963 and 1970, he took residency training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, completed a research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health and finished a fellowship in hematology-oncology at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis. From 1970 to 1985, he was on the University of California San Diego faculty, rising from assistant professor to professor of medicine at UCSD in less than nine years. He was instrumental in establishing and funding a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center at UCSD, which he directed from its inception in 1976 until he went to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1985.
At Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Mendelsohn chaired, reorganized and expanded its Department of Medicine. He also extended the landmark research that he began at UCSD to clarify at the molecular level how monoclonal antibody 225 prevents activation of the growth-signaling pathway that is turned on in cells by tyrosine kinase in EGF receptors. His group’s laboratory and pre-clinical studies initiated and advanced the concept of anti-receptor therapy and anti-tyrosine kinase therapy as new forms of cancer treatment.
Mendelsohn held the Winthrop Rockefeller Chair in Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, where he also served for five years as co-head of the Program in Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics. In addition, he was professor and vice-chairman of medicine at Cornell University Medical College and an attending physician at both Memorial and New York Hospitals. The first clinical trial in the world with an anti-receptor and an anti-tyrosine kinase treatment was carried out at Memorial Sloan-Kettering with monoclonal antibody 225.
Since becoming President of M.D. Anderson in 1996, Dr. Mendelsohn has recruited a visionary management team and implemented new priorities for integrated programs in patient care, research, education and cancer prevention. Under his direction, M. D. Anderson has been named the top cancer hospital in the nation five out of the past eight years in U.S. News & World Report's “America’s Best Hospitals” survey.
Mr. Kenneth E. Arnold
President
K. Arnold Consulting
Ken Arnold has a BCE degree from Cornell and an MS in Civil Engineering from Tulane. He has over forty years of experience in the oil and gas industry starting in 1964 with Shell Oil Company. Ken founded Paragon Engineering Services in 1980 which was purchased by AMEC, a UK based project management and engineering services company, in 2005. He is currently Senior Executive Vice President of AMEC Paragon based in Houston and also Chief Engineer, Oil & Gas, AMEC reporting to the Managing Director in Aberdeen.
Ken is co-author of two textbooks and over 50 technical articles on project management, production facility design, and offshore safety. He has twice been chosen as a distinguished lecturer by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and is the editor of the Production Facility Volume of the SPE Petroleum Engineering Handbook. He was named 2003 Houston Engineer of the Year by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers, and is a member of the Marine Board of the National Research Council.
Arnold has taught facilities engineering at the University of Houston and is a recipient of both the SPE Public Service Award and the SPE Production Engineering Award. He has received an American Petroleum Institute citation for his work in promoting offshore safety. Ken is a registered professional engineer and serves on the advisory board of the engineering schools of both Tulane University and Cornell University.
Dr. Paul F. Barbara
Richard J.V. Johnson-Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry
The University of Texas at Austin
Paul Barbara was born in New York, NY in 1953. He attended Hofstra University , earning a B.A. in 1974, and then went on to perform graduate work with R.G. Lawler at Brown University, receiving his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1978. From 1978 to 1980 he carried out postdoctoral work at Bell Laboratories. He joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 1980, achieving the rank of full professor in 1990.
In 1995 Dr. Barbara was named 3M-Alumni Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. In 1998 he moved to the University of Texas, Austin to fill the Richard J.V. Johnson Welch Chair in Chemistry, which he holds presently along with title, Director of the Center for Nano- and Molecular Science and Technology. He is currently a Senior Editor of Accounts of Chemical Research, and a Past Chair of the Division of Physical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.
Dr. Barbara was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999, a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1993, a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science in 2004 and in to the National Academy of Sciences in 2006. Other awards include an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1983), a Presidential Young Investigator award (1984), the George Taylor Distinguished Research Award (1990), a NSF Creativity Award in 1998, the 2002 Interamerican Photochemical Society Award, the JPA award in 2004, and over 35 named and plenary lectures.
Dr. Barbara's research interests include nanoscience, nanotechnology, ultrafast chemical reaction dynamics in solution, radiation chemistry, photochemistry femtosecond spectroscopy, near field scanning optical microscopy, and single molecule spectroscopy. He has published over 210 articles and book chapters.
Dr. Arthur L. Beaudet
Professor and Chairman, Department of Molecular Genetics
Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. Beaudet received a B.S. in Biology magna cum laude from College of the Holy Cross in 1963 and his M.D. cum laude from Yale in 1967. He then did two years of pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins and spent two years as a Research Associate at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda before going to Baylor College of Medicine in 1971, where he has remained to the present. Dr. Beaudet has published over 200 original research articles in diverse aspects of mammalian genetics. His contributions included the demonstration of mutations in cultured somatic cells in the 1970s at a time when such evidence was still considered novel. He published extensively on inborn errors of metabolism, particularly on urea cycle disorders. His group was the first to describe uniparental disomy in humans in 1988. He has had long-standing interests in somatic gene therapy and in cystic fibrosis. More recently his major focus has been on genomic imprinting as it relates to Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes, including identification of the gene causing Angelman syndrome.
Dr. Beaudet is well-known as one of the editors of the Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease tome for the 6 th through 8 th editions, and he has served on many editorial boards and national review panels. He was President of the American Society of Human Genetics in 1998 and is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Beaudet is currently the Henry and Emma Meyer Distinguished Service Professor and Chair in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine.
President, Texas A&M Health Science Center
Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs, Texas A&M University System
Dr. Dickey, who serves as the President of the Texas A&M Health Science Center, holds an academic appointment in the Department of Family and Community Medicine in the College of Medicine. She is a frequent lecturer in the College of Medicine’s Department of Medical Humanities and the Bush School for Public Policy, Texas A&M University.
Dr. Dickey is known for her work in health policy including medical ethics and health care safety. She chaired the American Medical Association’s Council of Ethical and Judicial Affairs during the precedent setting years of establishing legal and policy standards for care at the end of life including withholding artificially supplied hydration and nutrition in irreversibly comatose patients. She was the founding chair of the National Patient Safety Foundation, an early voice in the health professions field advocating for changes in equipment and process in order to reduce preventable errors in health care.
Recent efforts have been directed at system reform that incorporates continuity of care, patient engagement and “right sizing” the system.
Professor of Internal Medicine
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Scott M. Grundy, M.D., Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Human Nutrition and Chairman of the Department of Clinical Nutrition at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Texas, and Chief of the Metabolic Unit, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, also in Dallas. In recognition of his academic endeavors, he has earned the title of Distinguished Professor of Internal Medicine at the UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Previous academic appointments include the University of California, San Diego; the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Phoenix Clinical Research Unit; the Rockefeller University in New York City; and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Grundy received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine and his doctorate from the Rockefeller University.
Dr. Grundy’s research interests primarily focus on nutrition and cholesterol and lipoprotein metabolism. Notable research achievements include developing methods for measuring cholesterol balance and biliary lipid secretion in humans; identifying the metabolic causes of cholesterol gallstones; defining effects of saturated and unsaturated fats, especially monounsaturated fatty acids, on cholesterol and lipoprotein metabolism; uncovering genetic defects underlying elevated blood cholesterol and other lipid disorders; and identifying metabolic defects of elevated blood cholesterol, high triglycerides, and low HDL (the good cholesterol), and defining mechanisms of action of several lipid-lowering drugs, notably fibrates and HMG CoA reductase inhibitors (statins). Complementing his research endeavors, Dr. Grundy writes for the medical literature, and has published more than 300 original papers and numerous solicited articles and chapters.
Cullen Distinguished Professor
Director, Institute of Fluid Dynamics and Turbulence
University of Houston
Following his Ph.D. at Stanford and post-doctoral research at Johns Hopkins, Fazle Hussain, born in Bangladesh, moved in 1971 to the University of Houston (UH), where he has been Cullen Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering since 1989, with joint appointments in Physics and Geosciences Departments. He is an adjunct professor in the Bioengineering Department at Rice University. His research now focuses on methods of breaking up trailing vortices of aircraft - a likely way of tackling the looming crisis of air traffic capacity. His expertise is in fluid mechanics, turbulence and vortex dynamics. He is well known for his pioneering concepts regarding "order in disorder" of fluid turbulence and in methods of identifying "coherent structures" - delineated via laboratory measurements and supercomputer simulations - and in suggesting ways of controlling turbulent flow phenomena like drag, flow noise, mixing and combustion. He has been awarded the Fluids Engineering Award and the Freeman Scholar Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Fluid Dynamics Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, and the Fluid Dynamics Prize of the American Physical Society (APS). He served as the Chair of Fluid Dynamics Division of APS and is now the Vice-Chair of ME Section of NAE. In recognition of his excellence in teaching, research and university service, UH has recently awarded him its highest faculty honor, the Esther Farfel Award. He has recently been named the Gordon Moore Distinguished Scholar, the highest faculty award at Caltech, CA and Ministry of Science Distinguished Visiting Professor at Peking University, China. He teaches yoga as his hobby.
Chairman, Welch Foundation Scientific Advisory Board
D. R. Bullard-Welch Foundation Professor Emeritus of Science
Rice University
Dr. Kinsey is the D. R. Bullard-Welch Foundation Professor Emeritus of Science at Rice University and chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Welch Foundation. Dr. Kinsey's research has touched upon a variety of areas in chemical physics/physical chemistry, most of them involved with dynamics of simple chemical reactions or molecular collisions. His most recent research deals with the dynamics of decomposition of photoexcited molecules. The Kinsey group's work on photoemission during photodissociation gives a spectroscopic means of following the motion of the transient state leading to photochemical fragmentation, by recording the spectrum emitted by the excited molecule. The spectral characteristics of this radiation reveals details of dynamic processes in the excited electronic state and in the ground electronic state as well. In the process of coming apart, the molecule sweeps through infinite displacements in molecular geometry, thereby developing the ability to radiate into extremely high vibrational levels of the electronic ground state. The pattern of intensities in these lines is a "footprint" of the dissociation process. Dr. Kinsey is also interested in time-dependent quantum mechanics.
Dr. Max D. Summers
Distinguished Professor
Endowed Chair in Agricultural Biotechnology
Texas A&M University
Max D. Summers, who holds the Endowed Chair in Agricultural Biotechnology, is a Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University with academic appointments in the departments of Biology, Entomology, and Biochemistry and Biophysics. Current research focuses on the function of a newly discovered membrane-associated isoform of importin-alpha during the facilitated sorting of integral membrane proteins to the cell inner nuclear membrane (INM). This unique translocon-associated protein is being studied for its role in recognition of INM-destined membrane proteins and its ability to function both co- and posttranslationally during facilitated protein sorting and trafficking. M. Summers is known for his early studies on the molecular biology of baculoviruses and the seminal and enabling technology that resulted in the development of the Baculovirus Expression Vector System (BEVS). The BEVS is used world wide as a highly effective eukaryotic expression system for basic research, gene discovery and the commercial development and production of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and research reagents. Thousands of structurally and functionally authentic recombinant proteins have been expressed using this system, of particular note has been the recent notices for the pending marketing of a prostate cancer vaccine (Provengetm, Dendreon), a Papilloma Virus Vaccine (Ceravixtm, GlaxoSmithKline) and a non egg-based Flu vaccine (FluBIØktm, Protein Sciences).
Dr. Richard A. Tapia
University Professor
Directory of the Center for Excellence and Equity in Education
Maxfield-Oshman Professor of Engineering
Rice University
Dr. Richard A. Tapia, a mathematician and professor, in 1967 earned his mathematics Ph.D. from the University of California , Los Angeles . He has a 39-year career in mathematics research and education, serving as a professor at his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison , Stanford University, his current post at Rice University and current adjunct positions at the University of Houston and the Baylor College of Medicine.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Tapia serves as associate director of graduate studies and founding director of the Center for Excellence and Equity in Education. He has devoted himself to outreach programs that excel in recruiting women and underrepresented minority students to the university's Ph.D. programs in mathematical sciences. Dr. Tapia is known for his research in the computational and mathematical sciences.
He has authored or co-authored two books and over 80 mathematical research papers. He was the first Hispanic elected to the National Academy of Engineering, served as a President Clinton appointee to the National Science Board from 1996-2002, and has served as chair of the National Research Council's Board on Higher Education and Workforce. He is the chair of the Advisory Committee for the Houston Independent School District 's National Science Foundation Urban Systemic Initiative.
Dr. Tapia holds honorary doctorates from Carnegie Mellon University and The Colorado School of Mines. In 2004, Dr. Tapia won the "Distinguished Service to the Profession" award from both national mathematics societies , the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and The American Mathematical Society and the same year he won The Public Service Award from his alma mater UCLA. In 2005, Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology Magazine named him one of the 50 most important Hispanics in Technology and Business. He has also won numerous awards for his commitment to public service and advancing underrepresented minorities in education. Currently two national conferences carry his name.
Dr. James J. Truchard
President, CEO and Co-founder
National Instruments, Inc.
Dr. James Truchard, National Instruments President and CEO, co-founded the company in 1976 while working at The University of Texas at Austin. Under Truchard's leadership, NI has pioneered the development of virtual instrumentation software and hardware that has revolutionized the way engineers approach measurement and automation applications. As NI has grown from a three-man team to a global organization with more than 4,000 employees, Truchard has led the company with a conservative, deliberate approach that has yielded steady company success. He has incited innovation, growth, and expansion in a highly successful, worldwide enterprise. As a result, NI has seen 29 years of growth in its 30-year history. Truchard’s long-term course for NI equally balances the success of its customers, employees, shareholders, and suppliers. Truchard and his management team have created such a winning corporate culture that FORTUNE magazine has named NI as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America for the past eight years. In 2004 Dr. Truchard was named University of Texas Distinguished Engineering Graduate. In 2007, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
Dr. Ellen S. Vitetta
Director, Cancer Immunobiology Center Professor of Microbiology
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Dr. Vitetta is Professor of Microbiology, Director of the Cancer Immunobiology Center , and holder of the Sheryle Simmons Patigian Distinguished Chair in Cancer Immunobiology and a Distinguished Teaching Professor. She is an immunologist who does translational ("bench to bedside") research. She has published over 475 papers, edited several books, and is a co-inventor on 12 issued patents. She and her colleagues first described IgD on the surface of murine B cells and she was the co-discoverer of IL-4. Her group demonstrated that IL-4 was a "switch" factor for antibody. Over the past two decades, she has developed antibody-based "biological missiles" to destroy cancer cells and cells infected with HIV. These novel therapeutics have been evaluated in tissue culture, in animals and, since 1988, in >300 humans. In 2001, Dr. Vitetta developed a vaccine against ricin which completed testing in 15 human volunteers in 2005. The vaccine was safe and elicited neutralizing antibodies.
Dr. Vitetta has been the recipient of the Pierce Immunotoxin Award, 15 Faculty Teaching Awards, the FASEB Excellence in Science Award, the American Society of Microbiology Abbott Clinical Immunology Award, The American Association of Immunogists Excellence in Mentoring Award and the American Association of Cancer Research Rosenthal Prize. Dr. Vitetta was the 1993-94 president of the American Association of Immunologists. In 2004, she became a founding member of UT Southwestern's newly established Southwestern Academy of Teachers and the UT Academy of Health Science Education, 2006
In 2004, Dr. Vitetta's former graduate student, Dr. Linda Buck, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine with Dr. Richard Axel. Dr. Buck is the first alumna of the graduate school to receive this honor. In 2006, Dr. Vitetta was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame by Governor Rick Perry.
Distinguished Professor of Pathobiology
Texas A&M University
Dr. James E. (Jim) Womack holds the title of Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University and is the W.P. Luse Professor of Veterinary Pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine. He is a member of the Faculty of Genetics and holds an academic appointment in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center. He is Director of the Center for Animal Biotechnology and Genomics and is the past President of the International Society for Animal Genetics, the American Genetics Association and the Texas Genetics Society. He received the 2001 Wolf Prize in agriculture for pioneering the field of comparative gene mapping and “revolutionizing genomic research in domestic animals.” His research interests are comparative genomics, mapping and sequencing the bovine genome, and the genetic basis of disease resistance. Current projects include discovery of population level variation in bovine genes for host resistance to pathogens and the study of resistance to the Rift Valley Fever virus in laboratory rodents.