Want a job paying more than a hundred grand a year? Can you manage faculty and raise funds from the public? Always hankered to have the title "Dean" before your name?
If so, get your letter of application and resume into the Kansas University provost's office ASAP.
Provost David Shulenburger says he hopes to fill two of three vacancies for deans by Christmas.
One each is needed for the schools of law, fine arts, and business.
Shulenburger wants to move quickly on the law and fine arts searches because those schools have been without deans since 1998. Searches during the last academic year failed to land new deans. Shulenburger said the university was unable to reach agreement with the job finalists.
There was "no common reason" why agreement with the candidates was unreachable, Shulenburger said.
Another reason to complete the searches during the fall semester is to avoid the prime academic job-change time in the spring.
Search committees continue to look for people to fill the fine arts and law posts. And Shulenburger plans to name a search committee for the business school dean within about 10 days. Biz Dean Tom Sarkowski announced last week he'll retire after this year.
Law and business have the largest dean's salaries, paying in the $157,000 range. The fine arts position pays $103,200.
Carole Ross is the interim dean at the fine arts school. Shulenburger did not know whether she was an applicant for the dean's job. Ross did not reply to a message left with her office.
Survey says ...
KU officials have called a news conference for 1:30 p.m. today in the University Relations office. They wouldn't disclose details Thursday. But it has something to do with a survey.
Of mice and memory
OK. If all you got from the story about human memory research is the idea that Princeton is building a smarter mouse, talk to Eli Michaelis, director of the Higuchi Bioscience Center and chairman of the department of pharmacology and toxicology.
Michaelis has been doing similar research for 20-plus years. And he can explain it so someone without a Ph.D. might understand, too.
Michaelis is researching the exact make-up of genes producing N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptors. NMDA is a synthetic chemical that triggers memory formation in the brain. The genes provide the blueprint for the receptors, which are proteins that initiate electrical activity leading to memory formation.
"Ultimately what we want to do is understand what the receptors are made of and design drug agents effective in treating such things as epileptic seizures, chronic degenerative diseases, and intervene in alcoholism," Michaelis said.
NMDA receptors shut down when a person drinks alcohol. But when a person drinks constantly, the brain adapts. If that adaptation can be prevented, a person couldn't drink as much, he said.
Michaelis' research is funded by a $200,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health.
KU kudos for Koop
Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop has been selected as the first recipient of the Distinguished Service in Healthcare Award to be given at an Oct. 30 gala at KU Medical Center.
Koop is a friend of KUMC's Executive Vice Chancellor Donald Hagen, a former surgeon general of the Navy.
Koop, a pediatric surgeon, became surgeon general in 1981 and served until 1989.
-- Erwin Seba's phone message number is 832-7145. His e-mail address is eseba@ljworld.com.
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