Biographical Sketches for the Candidates
Chair Elect (1 member, 2009 – 2010).
The responsibilities of the Chair-Elect are to attend the annual leadership conferences for officers, to pay particular attention to programming issues within the Division, and to assist the Chair as may be requested by that individual. It is also the responsibility of the Chair-Elect to preside at meetings of the Executive Committee when the Chair is absent. Most importantly, the Chair-Elect will become Chair in 2011.
Daniel C. Liebler, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
Daniel Liebler received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Villanova University and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Vanderbilt University. Dr. Liebler is Professor of Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Biomedical Informatics. His past research studied antioxidant chemistry and analytical methods to monitor antioxidant reactions. Since 1998, Dr. Liebler’s research program has focused on application of mass spectrometry-based proteomics approaches to characterize protein damage by reactive intermediates involved in drug and chemical toxicity and oxidative stress. In January 2006, he was appointed Director of the Jim Ayers Institute for Precancer Detection and Diagnosis, which is dedicated to the discovery of proteomic markers for early cancer detection and for guiding therapy of established disease. Dr. Liebler’s long-term research goals are to apply proteomics and related emerging technologies to identify markers of disease, therapeutic effects and toxicity.
Trevor M. Penning, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania.
Trevor M. Penning, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Biophysics, and OB/GYN is the Director of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine. Dr. Penning was interim-chair of Pharmacology from 1994-1996, and was Director of the Office of Postdoctoral Programs, and Associate Dean for Postdoctoral Research Training, School of Medicine from 1997-2001, and was Director of Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs from 2001-2005. He is internationally recognized for his research on steroid hormone enzymology and mechanisms by which polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons cause cancer. His research is now focused on the emerging role of aldo-keto reductases in hormonal and chemical carcinogenesis. He has served on the Editorial Boards of The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Chemical Research in Toxicology, and Steroids. He was Program Chair for the Division of Chemical Toxicology of the American Chemical Society 2005-2006. In 2005, he assumed the Directorship of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology.
Executive Committee, Member-at-Large (1 member, 2009 – 2011).
There are three members-at-large of the Executive Committee that are elected for three-year terms. The duties of the members-at-large are to assist the chair in running the Division.
Billy W. Day, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
Billy Day graduated from Oklahoma City University with a double B.S. in Chemistry and Biology in 1982, and obtained the Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Oklahoma in 1988. His postdoctoral research, carried out in Professor Steven R. Tannenbaum’s laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolism. He joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 1991. Current research in Professor Day’s lab in the Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences and of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh includes computational, organic, medicinal and analytical chemistry combined with cell biology and pharmacology. He has served on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Chemical Research in Toxicology, Journal of Environmental Protection Sciences and Current Molecular Pharmacology, and on committees in the Chemistry in Cancer Research group of the AACR.
Dr. Raymond Nims graduated from St. John’s University (Collegeville, Minnesota) with a B.S. in Biology in 1974, and obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry (Chemical Toxicology) under the guidance of Professor Albert Cheh at The American University (Washington, D.C.) in 1993. His Ph.D. research was conducted at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, under the guidance of Drs. Larry Keefer and Ronald Lubet. During his 34-year career, Raymond has been engaged in research spanning a wide variety of areas of toxicology, from whole animal studies in carcinogenesis; biochemical endpoints of carcinogenesis, tumor promotion, and toxicology; in vitro toxicology; small molecule pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics; and enzyme (especially cytochromes P450) induction and inhibition. Dr. Nims is currently employed by Amgen as a specialist in the contract safety testing of biopharmaceuticals.
Nominations Committee (3 members, 2009).
The Nominations committee consists of three members elect for one-year terms. The member recieving the most votes becomes Chair of the Committee. The duties of the committee are to nominate candidates for the offices that are to be filled in the next election. In making the nominations, the committee should be attentive to issues of diversity and look for broad representation within the membership of the division.
Frederick A. Beland, Ph.D., National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR)
Fred Beland received a B.A. degree in Biology from The Colorado College, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from Montana State University. Following postdoctoral work in the Ben May Laboratory at the University of Chicago, he was recruited by the NCTR to continue his studies in cancer research. These studies have resulted in more than 250 publications. Dr. Beland is an elected member of the American and European Associations for Cancer Research and the American Chemical Society. He has served on the Program Committee for the American Association for Cancer Research, on the Board of Directors for the Division of Chemical Toxicology, American Chemical Society, and as a grant reviewer for more than 20 organizations. He has been a member of working groups of the International Agency for Research on Cancer to evaluate the carcinogenic risks of various chemicals and exposures. He is the past editor of Cancer Letters and has served on the editorial board of a number of journals, including Chemical Research in Toxicology.
Peter C. Dedon M.D., Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peter Dedon is Professor of Biological Engineering and Toxicology in the Department of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following graduation with a B.A. degree in Chemistry from St. Olaf College in 1979, he obtained an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Rochester in 1987, working with Prof. Richard Borch. He pursued postdoctoral studies with Prof. Martin Gorovsky at the University of Rochester, and with Prof. Irving Goldberg at Harvard Medical School before joining the Toxicology faculty at MIT in 1991. He currently serves as Associate Department Head, Deputy Director of the MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences and Chair of the MIT Committee on Radiation Protection. Prof. Dedon’s research program addresses the fundamental biological and bioanalytical chemistry of cancer and other human diseases, with a focus on the chemical mechanisms that link inflammation to disease.
Bruce A. Freeman, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Bruce Freeman obtained a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of California at Riverside and has had a long-standing interest in the cell signaling and toxicological actions of reactive species (free radicals, oxidants). He has elucidated mechanisms governing the production and subsequent reactions of O2•–, •NO, ONOO–, ROOH and RNO2 derivatives in eukaryotes and has defined the production and actions of these species in inflammatory, vascular and pulmonary diseases, and from this has revealed new and effective treatments for significant diseases. After post-doctoral and faculty service at Duke University and University of Alabama at Birmingham, he is now the Irwin Fridovich Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Kent Gates, Ph.D., University of Missouri
Kent Gates earned a BS in Chemistry from the University of Kansas in 1985. From there he moved to Northwestern University where, in 1990, he obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry working with Richard B. Silverman in the study of mechanism-based enzyme inactivators. He was an NIH postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Peter B. Dervan at the California Institute of Technology from 1990-1992. Since 1992 he has been a professor of chemistry at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri where he is currently the Herman G. Schlundt Professor of Chemistry. He teaches organic and medicinal chemistry. His research is focused on chemical mechanisms of DNA damage by structurally interesting, biologically active small molecules and on the chemical mechanisms underlying the redox regulation of protein function. He has most recently finished a two-year term as Program Chair of the Chemical Toxicology Division.
Dr. Kalgutkar received his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from Virginia Tech working under Prof. Neal Castagnoli Jr, and following a post-doctoral fellowship at the Department of Biochemistry (Prof. Lawrence J. Marnett), Vanderbilt University, he joined Pfizer in 1999. Currently, he is a research fellow in the Drug Metabolism / Pharmacokinetics Department at Groton Laboratories, Pfizer, Inc,. Dr. Kalgutkar’s laboratory supports numerous discovery/development programs in the cardiovascular and metabolic diseases group. Dr. Kalgutkar has also served on the editorial board of Chemical Research in Toxicology (ACS) and has authored over 60 publications (including peer-reviewed manuscripts and reviews and book chapters) and holds 6 patents. He was also awarded the Pfizer Global Research and Development 2005 Achievement Award for his original research initiatives on dealing with reactive metabolites.
Lawrence J Marnett, Ph.D., University of Vanderbilt
Larry Marnett earned a BS in Chemistry at Rockhurst College, KS in 1969 and his PhD in Chemistry at Duke University in 1973. After post-doctoral fellowships at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Wayne State, he was hired as faculty and rose through the ranks to become Professor of Chemistry at Wayne State. Currently he is Mary Geddes Stahlman Professor of Cancer Research, Professor of Biochemistry, Chemistry and Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. Dr Marnett is the founding and current Editor of Chemical Research in Toxicology, and was one of the founding fathers of the Chemical Toxicology Division, serving as its first Secretrary and Treasurer. In 2008, he recieved in inaugural Founders’ Award of the Chemical Toxicology Division. He has published over 300 papers and his research interests focus on the biology and chemistry of lipid peroxidation products and include the examination of malondialdehyde DNA-adducts, functional analysis of cyclooxygenase-2, lipid peroxidation and antioxidant mechanisms, and identification of molecular targets of novel therapeutic agents.
David A. Wink, Ph.D., National Cancer Institute
Dr. David A. Wink graduated with a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from University of California Santa Barbara in 1985. Then went on to do an NIH fellowship award at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. He has been at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) since 1989 first in the division of Etiology then later in 1995 transferring to the Division of Clinical Sciences. In 2005, Dr. Wink founded and is chair of the Cancer Redox Biology Faculty in the Center for cancer research, NCI. Dr. Wink laboratory has investigated the role NO and other reactive chemical species have on different, toxicological, genotoxic and pathophysiological mechanisms from carcinogenesis to cancer treatment. These mechanisms have focused on chemical toxicology and there implication to carcinogenesis as well as cancer treatment. He has published over 200 papers and currently serves on the editorial boards of Free Radical in Biology and Medicine, Nitric Oxide Chemistry and Biology, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.