Department of Chemistry Action Plan
The Self Study report of the Chemistry Department highlights the dramatic growth of the teaching and research efforts of the Department over the last five year period. The growth of the Department has continued unabated in all areas following completion of the report. The quality of overall program is outstanding as shown both by the performance of our students on national exams established by the American Chemical Society (ACS) as well as by the funding and publications success records of the Chemistry Faculty. The report and its appendix provide detailed analyses of all phases of the Department programs. A concise view of the growth in program size and quality is provided in Table A-1 (page 1 of the Self-Study Report). There has been close to a doubling of publications, grant support and credit hours taught by the Department faculty from 2001-2005. It is surprising to see that this occurred with an increase in tenure-track faculty numbers from 16 to only 18. Clearly the Department faculty and resources are stretched beyond the limit expected for a nationally competitive program in Chemistry.
The report clearly shows that with the appropriate resources, the Department can continue to improve at the rate shown in the Table and other sections of the report, and can continue to help lead GSU in attaining the goals in the University Strategic Plan. Section H of the Chemistry Department Self Study Report lists general needs of the Department and specific development plans are described below. The Chair's overview and the Dean's Response strongly supported the Self Study Report and reemphasized the needs of the Department.
In the Self-Study process, we devised a new plan to coordinate and focus the research efforts of the Department. The Chemistry Department has always closely linked research projects to questions in Chemical Biology and by following this approach we have gained international recognition in the short period since establishment of our graduate programs. In our revised research organization the three fundamental areas of research focus and growth are the following: I. Biosensors and Diagnostics – Separations and Practice. II. Biomolecular Structure and Interactions – Functions, Mechanisms and Recognition. III. New Therapeutic Agents and Approaches – Drug Design, Discovery and Development. Plans for the reorganization are in progress and the process will occur in the next five year period. New growth and development in the Chemistry Department will be in these three strong research areas. The resources described below are requested to support this plan. As an initial step in this plan, we will explore with the relevant departments a change in our name to the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. The instructional plan of the Department will continue to use the traditional course and areas names since this is required for our program certification by the American Chemical Society guidelines.
The growth in the Department’s instructional program has continued. We are now essentially at capacity for our core classes. As described in detail in the Self Study Report and review documents, virtually every class in the undergraduate core program is full. The Department has proposed additional faculty lines and space requirements to address the bottleneck. The urgent necessity for removal of this bottleneck to all programs served by the Department, as well as programs in other science departments, was a key point of the APR review and requires rapid assistance from the administration in terms of additional faculty numbers, space and resources.
The growth in instructional load has continued and has resulted in an increased dependence on Visiting Lecturers. Future growth and maintenance of the size and quality of the instructional program will require reduced dependence on Visiting Lecturers and the following resources are requested to address this need: 1) Convert oneVisiting Lecturer to a Lecturer. 2) Add Teaching Assistant lines commensurate with the planned expansion of the University. 3)Have competitive salaries for Visiting Lecturers, Lecturers and AssistantProfessors and ameliorate the compression/inversion salary issue for Associate Professors. 4) Hire two Tenure Track Faculty per year for the next two years and then, with the opening of the SciencePark, hire twoTenure Track Faculty per year for the following four years. For every two new Tenure Track hires, we will convert one visiting lecturer. A schedule of hiring of two faculty members a year is consistent with the available resources for running the searches, funding the start-up costs, and integrating new faculty members into the Department. In view of likely retirements, it is likely that of the twelve planned hires, eight would be new faculty and four would be replacements for those retiring. If view of the very great need for new and replacement faculty, we request that, in the event we have a particularly strong applicant pool, or a special circumstance (such as a partnership situation in which one person hopes to go to Georgia Tech, Emory or the CDC and the second wants to come to GSU), we be allowed to hire three people in one year. 5) Add support for two Graduate Lab Assistants per faculty hire per year. We propose extending the Action Plan timetable due to opening of the SciencePark. It should be noted that moving faculty research programs from Kell Hall and the NaturalScienceCenter will require additional funding.
The External Review:
The External Review Committee noted in the introduction to their report that they were impressed with progress in both the teaching and research programs in the Chemistry Department. They emphasize that the Department is “…succeeding in all areas of its mission” and they highlighted areas that need assistance for the Department to continue in its development. They were particular complimentary concerning our Chemical Biology program with emphasis in the three areas described above. The External Committee drew attention to several critical needs of the Department for continued quality growth. They pointed to the exceptional need for new Tenure Track Faculty for teaching and for the expansion of the research programs of the Chemistry Department. They noted that in order to attract outstanding faculty to maintain the accomplishment level of the Chemistry Department, it is crucial to offer competitive salaries, start up packages and to begin recruiting early to compete for the best people. In order to let new faculty establish funded research programs it is essential that the Chemistry Department be given significant new space in which to grow. There is a similar need to expand space for teaching laboratories. A strong need for additional staff assistance was also noted by the External Review Committee. The Department has had a dramatic increase in grant dollars, publications and others key criteria of research success but staff support has not kept pace. The number of undergraduate majors continues to increase dramatically. The External Review Committee noted a critical need for an increase in both instructional and research support staff.
The Academic Program Review Committee Report:
The APR report carefully reviewed the progress and current status of the Department. They noted “the quality and extent instruction is high.” With regard to the Chemistry Department research program they state “An exceptional high quality of research is the hallmark of the Chemistry Department”. They clearly described the centrality of the Chemistry Department to the University as well as the viability and strategic focus of the Department teaching and research programs.
In the “Recommendations” section, the APR report strongly emphasized the need that the Chemistry Department has for additional faculty. The need of space for these faculty is an essential part of this requirement. The space needed for faculty expansion must be part of the new ScienceResearchPark plan. The APR agreed with the Departmental Self Study and the External Review Committee that the Department must have additional support staff for both the instructional labs and to support externally funded research programs.
Chemistry Department Action Plan: Five Years Development and Investment Requirements
In light of the demonstrated needs of the Chemistry Department and the recommendations described above, the Department Action Plan has a core of three areas where resources are essential for optimizing current instruction and research efforts as well as for continued quality improvement: (i) faculty additions with competitive startup packages and salaries; (ii) new space for expansion of both the teaching and research programs and (iii) improved staff support for both the instructional and research programs. Each of these three points is described below with the needed budget resources required for implementation. These three key areas in our planned growth will require extensive support by the University. As emphasized by the External Review Committee, it is critical that salary lines that are competitive at the national level and appropriate start-up costs be included as part of the budget process for the next development period. In view of the national escalation of salaries for chemists, we increase proposed salaries at 5% per year.
One of the major points that we wish to emphasize to the entire University community is that investment in the Chemistry Department is returned many times over. This is clearly shown by Table A-1 in the Self Study report. Each year the Chemistry Department is one of the University leaders in external grants funds received. The investment plan described below will clearly lead to significant advancement for the Department and the University. Although not part of the development plan, it must be emphasized that positions for existing faculty and staff, which are vacated for any reason, must be rapidly refilled.
(i) Faculty Additions: All parts of the Self Study process clearly and strongly indicated the need for new faculty in the Chemistry Department. The three innovative new research focus areas defined in the Chemistry Department Self Study provide strong support for the Molecular Basis of Disease (MBD) and Brains Behavior (BB) initiatives of the University. All new faculty in Chemistry will fit into these programs, and will help to create exciting collaborative opportunities as well as options to obtain research equipment that can be shared by more than one research group or department. New faculty members with interests that fit into the above areas will conduct research that will have an impact on human health and should find it easier to obtain funding under the current NIH focus on Bench to Bedside programs. This plan will also allow us to continue our productive and synergistic collaborations and interactions with the Department of Biology. All sections of the Chemistry Department Self Study noted dramatic increases in student enrollment over the last five year period and the strong need for new faculty to meet the Chemistry Department instructional responsibilities. To support our research and instructional needs we propose tohire eight Tenure Track Faculty members (listed as TTN for new Tenure Track faculty) during the next six-year period of development of the Chemistry Department. We are assuming that all regular faculty positions will be filled as they open (listed as TTR for replacement Tenure Track faculty in the discussions of research areas below). In addition, we will hire aGeorgia Research Alliance (GRA) Eminent Scholar; this person will be key in forming the central core in our development program.
Student diversity continues to be strength of the GSU Chemistry Department. Nationally, we rank very high in African American B.S., MS and Ph.D. Production. While the Department has a diverse faculty and is constantly striving to broaden the faculty base, there is an urgent need for another Tenure Track Faculty mentor for African-American students. The Department is making every effort to use the target of opportunity approach to fill this need.
The market for outstanding faculty who can fit into the three Chemistry Department development areas as well as the MBD and BB initiatives is very competitive and it is essential that the Department be supported to offer attractive startup packages as well as competitive salaries for the new positions. Competitive salary lines that are detailed in the budget are based on the Chemical & Engineering News annual national survey that is conducted by the American Chemical Society. With this level of support for hiring new faculty, the Chemistry Department will be able to compete for the best candidates to join our development program and teach in our instructional program. The growth in size and quality of our programs that occurred in the last review period will be maintained with appropriate investment by the University.
Areas where faculty additions are essential to add to or to complement existing research programs in our three development areas are briefly described below and these will be our top priorities in faculty recruiting in the next development period. Proposed new faculty members are designated as TTN. Replacement faculty members are designated as TTR. It is necessary to take into account teaching responsibilities in deciding on scientific areas in which to hire. Thus, the proposed faculty areas below could change depending on which faculty members retire or leave.
GRA Eminent Scholar in Chemical Biology. Chemical biology is emerging as a central field in the general discipline of chemistry. The development of the field of chemical biology will be critical to the in depth understanding of complex diseases at molecular level. In this regard, we should position ourselves in such a way that in the five years, the Chemistry Department will significant enhance its ability to train high quality graduate and undergraduate students in this field. In addition, an Eminent Scholar in Chemical Biology will interact with people in biology, biochemistry, organic chemistry, computer science, and analytical science and therefore help to strengthen the research infrastructure of the entire Department and University. Chemical Biology is central to our development and an Eminent Scholar in this area will enhance and accelerate our Research in all three focus areasas well as in our Instructional programs. Hiring an Eminent Scholar will depend on identifying a qualified candidate, and developing a package that includes space, funding, and other resources for the position. In view of the space requirements of an Eminent Scholar, this hiring will occur at the earliest only after the opening of the SciencePark.
Drug Design and Discovery. One of the eventual goals of understanding the fundamental biological, physiological, and pathological processes of various biological systems is the discovery of agents that can be used as drugs, diagnostic and preventative agents. Chemical biology plays a central role in such drug discovery process. In addition, there is a heavy and increasing demand for collaboration with medicinal chemists by biologists at GSU and in the state of Georgia because of the strong biological and pharmacological programs at GSU and neighboring institutions such as Emory, Medical College of Georgia, MorehouseMedicalCollege, University of Georgia, and Georgia Institute of Technology. This strong demand for medicinal chemists for collaborations also opens up tremendous opportunities for increased funding and productivity in this area. Furthermore, there is a need for us to train more future medicinal chemists in anticipation of further growth in this area. This is also a key focus area identified in the Self-Study Report, Therefore, it is critical that our growth plan includes drug design and discovery as one key component and we propose to hire two faculty members in this area. The following are several areas of specific emphasis where additional faculty would strengthen our program: an addition in the anti-infectives(TTR1) area would complement GSU’s strength in infectious disease and the anticipated new statewide initiative in vaccines and infectious diseases; a hire in the area of neurological disease(TTR2) will mesh well with our Brains and Behaviors focus; a new faculty member in anticancer(TTN6) and other genetic/epigenetic disorders is in line with GSU’s Molecular Basis of Diseases focus and a statewide effort to bring a comprehensive cancer center to the state of Georgia. Training future scientists in drug design and discovery will also be critical to the pharmaceutical industry in Georgia and nationwide.
Developing Chemical Tools and Platform Technologies for the Understanding of Biological Problems. Tools and technologies invented and developed by chemists have traditionally played important roles in the revolution of biology. Examples of such inventions include DNA and protein sequencing technologies, PCR, mass spectrometry, NMR, etc. It is expected that future development of the biomedical field will even more heavily rely on new tools and technologies to be developed by chemists. This is especially true with the rapid development of the field of chemical biology, though the tools and technologies may focus more and more on molecular tools and approaches. Therefore, expansion in this area in the next five years is critical for the Chemistry Department to stay competitive. Specifically, we would like to expand into an area of using small organic molecules to explore the mechanisms of biological processes(TTN7) such as signaling pathways, metabolic disorders, gene expression, or other genetic and epigenetic issues. Training future scientists in this area will also be critical to the biomedical community.