photo by: Submitted

David Dietz

A professor and drug researcher at the University at Buffalo will make a public presentation on the KU campus Thursday as he vies to become the next dean of the University of Kansas’ pharmacy school.

David Dietz, a professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology at the Buffalo, New York university, will be on the KU campus Thursday to interview for the open dean position at the KU School of Pharmacy.

Dietz also is an associate dean of research strategy at Buffalo’s school of medicine. In his various positions he’s overseen multiple National Institutes of Health grants to study how heroin and cocaine use change the brains of people addicted to the drugs.

Dietz will provide a public presentation about his candidacy for the KU pharmacy school dean position at 4 p.m. on Thursday in Room 1020 of the School of Pharmacy building. Dietz was previously announced as finalist for the position and was scheduled to make a public presentation in late February. That presentation, however, was postponed and rescheduled to this week.

Dietz earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Florida State University and his undergraduate degree from Rutgers University, and also served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Friedman Brain Institute at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

Other finalists for the position are: Chrissa Kioussi, a professor and chair of pharmaceutical sciences at Oregon State University; Aaron Mohs, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy; and Theresa Shireman, a health care researcher at Brown University

The dean position is open after past pharmacy dean Ron Ragan resigned in May. Ragan stepped down from the leadership position to return to his appointment as a tenured professor within KU’s School of Pharmacy.