Three finalists for dean of the WSU College of Pharmacy will visit the Pullman and Spokane campuses in upcoming weeks.
They are Yuen-Sum (Vincent) Lau, the John and Rebecca Moores Professor and chair of the Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences Department at the University of Houston; Gary E. DeLander, associate dean and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Oregon State University, and Gary M. Pollack, executive associate dean and professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics of the Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Numerous meetings and interviews are planned during their visits. Faculty and staff are invited to attend the open sessions, which will be announced through WSU Announcements as soon as schedules are finalized.
* Lau is scheduled to visit Jan. 21-22. He received his bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, and his master’s and doctoral degrees in pharmacology, also from the University of Hawaii.
Prior to becoming chair at the University of Houston in July 2005, he was professor and chair at the Division of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Previous to that appointment, he was a faculty member at the Creighton University Medical School in Omaha, Nebraska.
Lau’s research laboratory has developed and characterized a chronic, progressive mouse model of Parkinson’s disease, which is the first known chronic model that resembles many symptomatologies detected in Parkinson’s disease patients. This model has proven to be useful for developing new neuro-protective therapies and for further examining the mechanisms of neuro-degeneration relevant to neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s.
* DeLander is scheduled to visit Feb. 1-2. He received his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy at the University of Colorado and his doctoral degree in pharmacology from the University of Minnesota.
Since 1983, DeLander has served Oregon State University in the positions of assistant professor, assistant dean for academic affairs and associate professor, prior to assuming his current administrative roles.
His research centers around pain. He is interested in the way pain signals are transmitted in the body, the means the body uses to inhibit pain signals and how various drugs work in the body to inhibit pain. He has focused on how these topics relate to the spinal cord, and its role in the modification of pain. He has concentrated on the role of opioids and adenosine as endogenous inhibitors of pain.
* Pollack is scheduled to visit Feb. 4-5. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry/psychology from Knox College in Illinois and his doctoral degree in pharmaceutics from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
He has been at the University of North Carolina since 1984 and has served as assistant professor, associate professor, professor and chair of the Division of Pharmaceutics and chair of the Division of Drug Delivery and Disposition.
Pollack’s research interests are kinetics of blood-brain barrier transport, neuronal receptor binding, and central nervous system effects of xenobiotics; kinetics and mechanisms of opioid tolerance development; data analysis methods for pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic systems; and innovative instructional approaches for pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
Bill Campbell is interim dean of the college. He was appointed last summer and was previously dean and professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy. He succeeded James Kehrer, who accepted a deanship at the University of Alberta after serving as WSU’s dean of the College of Pharmacy for four years.
The search committee was appointed in June 2009. Mike Griswold, dean of the College of Sciences, is chair.