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Same name, new department
Changes caused by the biological sciences reorganization also affect the Department of Biochemistry,
Biophysics and Molecular Biology
Characterizations of the biological sciences reorganization in the new
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology and the Department
of Genetics, Cell Development and Biology are the same.
New department names. New department chairs. Faculty moving from one department
to another.
That isn't the case for the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular
Biology (BBMB). In fact on the surface it doesn’t appear that much
has changed.
The department's name has remained the same.
Alan Myers, professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology,
will stay on as the department's chair.
The entire faculty previously in the department chose to remain.
But dig a little deeper and you'll see that the biological reorganization
has affected even BBMB.
Instead of losing faculty members, Myers says the department will gain an
additional six faculty who transferred in from the old Departments of Zoology
and Genetics, and Microbiology.
The original premise for the reorganization of the biological sciences was
to place faculty with similar scholarly interests in the same academic departments.
The biology departments were to be reorganized to follow three general levels
of investigation - molecular, cellular and organismal.
"The faculty members were asked to choose the area that they wanted
to be associated with," Myers said. "It just worked out that all
of the people in BBMB already work at the molecular or chemical level, and
so there were no requests to move to different department."
The six "new" faculty members will broaden the areas of emphasis
in the department according to Myers.
"The whole department is unified based on the scientific approach we
want to take and on the types of scientific questions we're trying to answer,"
he said.
For the last part of the 2003 spring semester, old and new faculty in the
department underwent a strategic planning process. A new mission statement
was written - the department's first revision since 1989.
In addition the department developed a new strategic plan for the next five
years.
This process was the beginning of the "getting acquainted" stage
for the new department.
"We need to work hard to make sure that people get to know each other,"
Myers said. "We have the same interests. Now we have to develop communication
between the incoming and current faculty, making sure everyone is comfortable
with all of the new developments.
"The 20 of us have been together for a long time," he continued.
"Now we have six new people joining the department who are bringing
new ideas with them."
Those new ideas and possibilities have Myers excited about the reorganization.
"I think we were a strong department before and I think we're a strong
department now," he said. "But I think that the reorganization
has broadened our interests and has better positioned this department for
the next 10 years.
" The advantage that we've gained with the new alignment is that we
are going to be well prepared for future developments in the areas of science
that address biology at the level of molecular mechanisms." 
Around LAS
August 25 to September 7, 2003
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