OU dean named president-elect of association

The largest national association serving the deans of colleges of arts and sciences has selected its 2009-2010 officers, including a member of the University of Oklahoma faculty.

Paul B. Bell Jr., dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and vice provost for instruction at OU, was named president-elect of the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences at its November meeting in Portland, Ore.

CCAS' informal motto, "Deans helping deans to dean," reflects the role CCAS plays in providing professional development opportunities for academic deans and department chairs designed to help them be more effective in meeting their leadership and management responsibilities.

The Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences has 1,500 members representing 450 colleges and universities that serve 4 million students.

Bell joined the OU faculty in 1979 as an assistant professor of zoology. In 1989, he was named faculty administrative fellow in the Provost's Office, later adding the titles of acting university registrar and associate provost for undergraduate education.

In 1997, he moved into his current positions of vice provost for instruction and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, OU's largest college.

At OU, Bell has taught cell biology and histology, primarily to zoology majors and pre-medical students. He also has taught honors courses in biomedical ethics.

OU researcher named AAAS Fellow

University of Oklahoma Professor Jizhong Zhou has been awarded the distinction of Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science for contributions to the field of microbial genomics and ecology, particularly for pioneering advances in developing genomic technologies for environmental technologies.

Election as a Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. Zhou is a presidential professor in OU's department of botany and microbiology and director of the Institute for Environmental Genomics.

According to a press release announcing his selection as a Fellow, Zhou has distinguished himself as an international leader in four areas of environmental microbiology: environmental genomics, functional genomics, microbial ecology and community dynamics, and microbial detection and identification.

Zhou and a group of colleagues are credited with development of GeoChip, a genomics-based tool that can detect functional genes and processes within a microbial community with many applications. This is the first comprehensive gene chip for studying biogeochemical, ecological and environmental processes.

GeoChip was successfully tested in a bioremediation field study where it was used to monitor a microbial community as it reduced uranium levels in contaminated groundwater. Bioremediation is one of many possible applications of GeoChip.