ANN ARBOR---University of Michigan President Lee C. Bollinger announced today that he has selected two prominent scientists---a biochemist from the U-M and a cell biologist from the University of California, San Diego---to serve as lead scientists and co-directors of the U-M's new Life Sciences Institute. The appointments will be presented to the U-M Board of Regents for approval at their Oct. 19-20 meeting.
Pending Regental approval, Jack E. Dixon, currently the U-M's Minor J. Coon Professor of Biological Chemistry and chair of biological chemistry in the U-M Medical School, will begin his new position on July 1, 2001, after completing his term as department chair.
Scott D. Emr, professor of cellular and molecular medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, will become co-director on July 1, 2002. Emr and Dixon will share administrative and management responsibilities for the Life Sciences Institute, while continuing to direct their own scientific research laboratories.
"We are very fortunate, indeed, to have as directors two great scientists who possess the personal qualities to attract and support other great scientists at our University," said Bollinger. "They will be outstanding as scientific leaders and co-directors of the Institute, maintaining their own excellent research efforts while jointly building the new institute from the ground up."
Currently under construction and scheduled for completion in spring 2003, the Institute building will contain laboratories and offices for 30 science faculty---jointly appointed in academic departments---plus postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and staff. Financial support for the Institute will come from externally sponsored research, private gifts and a $130 million fund established by the University. Anticipated construction costs for the 240,000-square-foot Institute building are $9
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Contact: Sally Pobojewski
pobo@umich.edu
734-647-1844
University of Michigan
17-Oct-2000