Message from the Director
We are pleased to have a number of new faculty joining us this academic year. Brian Kemp, who is cross-appointed with anthropology; Elissa Schwartz, who is cross-appointed with mathematics; and Hanjo Hellman, a plant cell biologist. Asaph Cousins, who specializes in plant metabolism and biotechnology, joined us in January of 2008. Jeremiah Busch, a plant evolutionary geneticist, will join us in summer of 2008. We are especially excited to have all these new faculty join us because of the many interactions that appear likely with our current faculty and students.
Some changes in the advising office for pre-health sciences students also took place. David Moffett stepped down as lead advisor in that area after 15 years of excellent contributions. Paul Verrell assumed his duties. Charlotte Omoto took over as associate director for SBS undergraduate programs from Paul.
We continue to be excited about the many opportunities and increased numbers of our undergraduates who are participating in research projects. More funds are available from a variety of sources for these projects, and major events such as poster competitions are being held to recognize students' contributions.
We were also gratified about the recognition of the quality of our programs in a recent survey of faculty scholarly productivity. WSU's botany/plant biology programs ranked fifth nationally in productivity and our zoology program ranked tenth nationally. More information on this survey is available at chronicle.com/stats/productivity.
I would enjoy seeing you and visiting when you are in Pullman. Please stop by the school.
Best wishes,
Gary Thorgaard
thorglab@wsu.edu
Director, School of Biological Sciences
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