Dennis Dean honored with University Distinguished Professor Emeritus status
Dennis Dean, University Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech, has been conferred the title of University Distinguished Professor Emeritus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The emeritus title may be conferred on retired faculty members who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in recognition of exemplary service to the university. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive a copy of the resolution and a certificate of appreciation.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 1985, Dean brought international visibility to the university by advancing the fundamental scientific understanding of mechanisms underlying nitrogen fixation and the biological processes that lead to the assembly of iron sulfur clusters.
Dean was the author or co-author of more than 215 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters that have been heavily cited by other researchers. He maintained a consistently funded research program for more than 47 years, supported by numerous grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In the classroom, Dean taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses and encouraged and supported undergraduate student research. He created the endowed Dennis Dean Undergraduate Research Symposium, the Fralin Scholars Program, and the Dennis Dean and Cynthia Day Endowment for underserved undergraduate students.
Dean served the university community as a dedicated leader in several capacities. He served as the director of the Fralin Biotechnology Center from 2002-08, director of the Institute for Biomedical and Public Health Sciences from 2006-08, interim director of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute from 2008-10, director of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute from 2008-20, director of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute from 2012-14, and the interim vice president for research and innovation from 2015-16.
Dean has received many professional honors and awards in his career, including fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, fellow of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and the Purdue University Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Dean received his bachelor's degree from Wabash College and was a pre-doctoral National Institutes trainee at Purdue University, where he earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology. He was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin and began his independent scientific career at the Kettering Laboratory.
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