BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT BRINGS IN NEW CHAIRMAN

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The University of Arkansas biology department has hired an expert in molecular genetics and recombinant DNA technology to lead its faculty into the 21^st century.

Donald J. Roufa, the new department chairman, comes to Arkansas from Kansas State University, where he has been a on the biology faculty since 1975. Roufa’s research focuses on the biochemistry responsible for gene regulation and expression in mammals, which he approaches using molecular genetics and cell tissue culture.

Roufa’s salary has been set at $110,000 annually.

Roufa has experience working with the two research groups that comprise the biology department’s greatest strengths - ecology and evolutionary biology and cellular and molecular biology, said Roger Koeppe, professor of chemistry and head of the selection committee

"He wants to push the department forward in both those areas," Koeppe said.

Roufa has lectured at the University of Arkansas over the years and already knew many of the faculty members before he applied for the position.

"I thought Arkansas would be an exciting place to come to," he said. "Talking to former Dean Bernie Madison and Chancellor White, I sensed that the University is really supportive of the biological sciences."

Roufa’s research laboratory will be housed in the new biological sciences building currently under construction. He said a state of the art research building will help the department reach its goals.

"I would like the department to gain a strong national reputation," he said. The structure and faculty who can build that reputation are in place, Roufa said. His goal is to enhance and build on what is already there.

"Whenever biological scientists are traveling across the states, I would like Fayetteville to be a place where they would want to stop," he said.

"If we are to complete Chancellor White's vision for increased enrollment and national funding then we need people with the experience to lead this department toward that goal," said Douglas Rhoads, interim chairman of the department.

"Dr. Roufa has the experience in undergraduate and graduate programs necessary to administer the department," Rhoads said. "He also brings an NIH funded laboratory here and the expertise to help others in that area."

Roufa’s work has been funded by the U.S. Public Health Service, the National Science Foundation and the American Cancer Society. He currently serves on the Center for Basic Cancer Research Executive Committee, the Molecular and Cell Biology Program Coordinator for the Wesley Foundation Multidisciplinary Program for Cancer Research and Training, and has served as an expert consultant on DNA evidence in Kansas.

Roufa graduated cum laude in 1965 from Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., and earned his Ph.D. with distinction from Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health in 1970.

He served as an assistant professor of biochemistry and medicine at Baylor College in Houston, then became an associate professor of biology at Kansas State University in 1975, where he was promoted to full professor and remained until his appointment at the U of A.

His fields of research include biochemical genetics, nucleic acid chemistry, recombinant DNA technology, computer applications in molecular genetics and forensic applications of DNA technology.

He is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Society of Biological Chemists and the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology.

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