Dr. William Wickner, a cell biologist and medical doctor at the University of California Los Angeles will become the new biochemistry department chair at Dartmouth Medical School July 1.
The biochemistry department has been without a regular chair since retired DHMC President Henry Harbury left that position in June 1989. Biochemistry Professors Constance Brinckerhoff and Oscar Scornik have served as acting chairs.
With 11 faculty members and 38 graduate students, biochemistry is the largest Ph.D.-granting department at the Medical School.
The College discontinued the undergraduate biochemistry program last year. Students studying a similar curriculum now do so through the biology and chemistry departments.
In a telephone interview, Wickner said he was attracted to the College by its rural setting and the concept of a small and excellent academic community. He also pointed out the general excellence of the students.
In the magazine Dartmouth Medicine, Wickner said his top priority in his new position will be "building the graduate program, in numbers of quality graduate students."
Wickner said he feels the current number of graduate students is not sufficient. "Successful research programs need several students and postdocs in each lab," he said.
Wickner also said he will aim for a modest increase in faculty members and would like to establish a joint biochemistry graduate program with the College's biology department, according to Dartmouth Medicine.
As chair, Wickner will also continue his research on how proteins are secreted and reabsorbed and how organelles divide during cell division.
"I am delighted that Bill will be joining us. He is absolutely devoted to science education, and will add significantly to the programs of the Dartmouth Medical School and Dartmouth College," Medical School Dean Andrew Wallace said.
Wickner first visited the College in the early 1980s for a seminar. He said he looks forward to working with the faculty at the College, many of whom he has befriended.
Wickner graduated from Yale in 1967 and from Harvard Medical School in 1973. He was a senior research fellow at Stanford Medical School from 1974 to 1976. He then joined the Department of Biological Chemistry at UCLA, becoming a full professor in 1981.
Over the course of his career, Wickner has received numerous awards and fellowships such as the American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award and the National Institutes of Health Merit Award.
Trucks carrying Wickner's current lab equipment will leave Los Angeles for Hanover at the beginning of July. He will also bring his lab technicians, four postdoctoral fellows and one graduate student.
