Conrad Gilliam named Dean for Research at the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division

January 8, 2010

Conrad Gilliam, PhD, has been named the Dean for Research and Graduate Education at the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division, a new position, effective January 1, 2010.

Gilliam, the Marjorie I. and Bernard A. Mitchell Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Genetics and a Senior Fellow in the Computation Institute and Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology, will assume responsibility for the strategic planning and quality control of research and graduate education throughout the Biological Sciences Division. As dean for research, he will ensure that faculty in the Division have effective advocacy for their academic missions.

An authority on the identification and characterization of heritable mutations that affect the nervous system, Gilliam studies rare disease mutations and common heritable traits and disorders, such as fear-learning and autism, using mouse models as well as genomic and bioinformatic approaches.

A 1977 graduate of Clemson University with a 1981 PhD in biochemistry from the University of Missouri, Gilliam completed postdoctoral training in human genetics at the University of London before joining the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 1983. He moved to Columbia University in 1986, where he was a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Genetics & Development. He was named Director of the Columbia Genome Center in 2000. He came to the University of Chicago in 2004 as chair of human genetics.

Since he first arrived at the University, Conrad Gilliam has "demonstrated a talent for tactful handling of difficult academic issues and assembling teams of leading scholars that often cross departmental and divisional boundaries," said Everett E. Vokes, MD, interim dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago and CEO of the Medical Center. "He has been a strong voice for the faculty and for research during difficult times, deft at building consensus and sensitive to the best interests of our research community."