Interim Dean of Graduate Studies
Dear Colleagues,
I am very happy to announce the appointment of Professor Audrey Lamb to the role of interim dean of Graduate Studies. Dr. Lamb, professor in the Department of Molecular Biosciences, will assume this role at the start of the spring 2019 semester.
Audrey joined the KU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as an assistant professor in 2003. Her main research interest focuses on mechanistic enzymology and structural biology to understand what makes an enzyme a biological catalyst. She specifically studies enzymes involved in metal acquisition and riboflavin biosynthesis by pathogenic bacteria. This basic science research can be applied to the design of new antibiotics, an important prospect due to the rapid increase in bacterial resistance. Audrey has a strong publication and funding record, which includes research awards from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the W. M. Keck Foundation. She received her doctorate in biochemistry from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University.
Audrey is a decorated teacher and mentor, as a recipient of a 2009 W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence and a 2017 K. Barbara Schowen Undergraduate Research Mentor Award. She has a long record of supporting graduate education and is a co-director of the Graduate Training Program in Chemical Biology, which includes a certificate program and a National Institutes of Health T32 Training Grant that funds 10 trainees from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the School of Pharmacy. Through these programs, she has pioneered a new curriculum that emphasizes career development in the biomedical sciences. She has also instituted a new mentor training program for NIH-funded training programs at KU.
I am very excited we were able to recruit Audrey for this important role and I look forward to interacting with her. Clearly, she is a tremendous advocate of graduate training and graduate students, and she came highly recommended by the graduate student representatives of Student Senate.
Audrey and I will work to put together an advisory committee that will include graduate students and faculty and staff with deep experience in graduate education. The committee membership will cover the full range of disciplines at KU and include representation from governance. We will be in touch with more details after the start of the new year.
Until then, please join me in congratulating Audrey on this appointment and in thanking Prof. Michael Roberts for his service.
Carl
Carl Lejuez
Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
