2009 Sigma Xi Annual Meeting & International Research Conference
November 12-15, 2009
The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel
The Woodlands, Texas (near Houston)
W. Franklin (Frank) Gilmore
Chancellor
Montana Tech of The University of Montana
Butte, MT 59701
Frank Gilmore is Chancellor and the 10th Campus CEO of Montana Tech, an institution started 100 years ago as the Montana School of Mines. Prior to coming to Montana Tech, Frank was the Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs at West Virginia University Institute of Technology. For twenty-six years he was professor, chair, and research professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Mississippi.
A native of Mississippi, Frank Gilmore earned a B.S. in Chemistry at Virginia Military Institute and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After service in the Army, he spent a postdoctoral year with DeLos DeTar at the Institute of Molecular Biophysics at Florida State University. He also attended law classes at the University of Missouri at Kansas City while working for the Midwest Research Institute and later he attended the Institute of Educational Management at Harvard University.
As a graduate student at MIT, Frank was elected to full membership in Sigma Xi in 1960. He is a charter member of the University of Mississippi Chapter of Sigma Xi and served as President of that chapter on two occasions. He has served Sigma Xi as a Regional Director and a Director at Large and as a member of the Executive Committee, Finance Committee and Awards Committee and Strategic Planning Committee (Chair). He is a lifetime member of Sigma Xi and currently a member of the Montana Tech of The University of Montana Chapter.
For the first twenty-six years of his academic career, Frank Gilmore was a teacher and mentor to undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral associates. His most innovative research was the statement of and the original validation of the concept of peptidomimetics. Another research area was concerned with organophosphorus chemistry and the use of organphorphorus compounds as biological agents. Another research topic involved modified amino acids, especially aminophosphonic acids and peptides containing aminophosphonic acids.
Dr. Gilmore has served on the Board of Directors of the Butte-Silver Bow United Way and the Board of Directors of the Butte Family YMCA. He currently serves on the Goldwater Scholarship Selection Committee, and the NAPLEX Steering Committee of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
Candidate's Statement - Frank Gilmore
Sigma Xi, like most organizations today, is struggling to keep its head above water without using money from the endowment except earnings from specifically directed endowments such as for Grants-in-Aid of Research. My strengths are more in strategies for budgeting and revenue enhancement than in spreadsheets and accounting. To develop these strategies for controlling costs and enhancing revenues the Treasurer of Sigma Xi must be able to work with the President and the Executive Director. I can do this because I have the experience and the ability to work in harmony with a broad spectrum of personalities. This is also an essential skill since the Treasurer is Chair of the Finance Committee which is commonly composed of strong individuals who have expertise in budgeting, endowments, investments and budget management. With gentle but persuasive leadership this committee will usually make recommendations that are sound for Sigma Xi.
I agreed to be a candidate for Treasurer because Sigma Xi has been an important part of my life for forty-nine years and I have been especially active over the past twenty-five years. As the premier international organization that supports research in STEM programs Sigma Xi must be nurtured back to full health and vitality.
Richard E. Miller
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
University of California, Merced
Rich Miller began his research career at the University of Washington as a candidate for the Ph.D. He was initiated into Sigma Xi at that time (1966), and has remained a member for over 40 years. After obtaining his degree, he received his postdoctoral training at Princeton, MIT and Penn State University. During that time, he became a full member of Sigma Xi. He began his academic career at Michigan State University. While at Michigan State, Rich was elected to the office of National Treasurer of Phi Lambda Upsilon, the Chemistry Honor Society. He performed that role for four years, until he moved to The Ohio State University as an administrator in the Chemistry Department, managing all of the non-academic functions.
Rich subsequently spent 23 years at Texas A&M University and held administrative positions in the College of Science and the Vice President for Research. In all of these positions, management of budgets and finance were among his responsibilities, along with research administration over pre-award, post-award and compliance. He served for three years as director of the Electron Microscopy Lab. Rich earned an MBA shortly after joining Texas A&M.
In addition to teaching undergraduate Chemistry, Rich taught a course in research administration and in research ethics. He participated for four years as a judge for the undergraduate research competition sponsored by Sigma Xi.
While at Texas A&M, Rich put in a major effort in support of the local Sigma Xi chapter, serving as President and subsequently as Executive Director of the local chapter. He was elected to the positions of Regional Associate Director and Regional Director, served on the Society's finance committee for the past four years, and continues to serve in that capacity.
Currently, Rich is located at the University of California at Merced, where he serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. UC Merced is the 10th and newest campus of the University of California. As a start-up university, it has afforded all of the faculty and staff some significant and interesting challenges and opportunities. Although it is still small in size, only in its fifth year, its research accomplishments and competitiveness are remarkable and steadily growing.
With the assistance of some key faculty, Rich has been instrumental in establishing a new chapter of Sigma Xi at UC Merced. Up until this year, he served as Executive Director.
The common threads throughout Rich's career path have been research, research administration, budgets, finance and planning.
Candidate's Statement - Richard E. Miller
Sigma Xi has led as the primary organization that recognizes, rewards and promotes the research enterprise. It is important that the Society continue in this role, while continuously evolving to strengthen its value to the individuals and organizations it serves. As the demands on researchers and the scrutiny of the enterprises expand, Sigma Xi will be a voice for the inherent value of the research itself, both in industry and the academy. Its emphasis must be on responsiveness to the research professions. The Society accomplishes much of this mission by supporting its fundamental delivery system, i.e., the local chapters.
I have been a member and an officer of Sigma Xi throughout my research career. I believe in the mission of the Society, and have dedicated much of my life to the support of research. The role of the office of the Treasurer is to continue to maintain a stable financial position for the Society, along with the flexibility to be responsive to the changing demands and needs of the research enterprise. It is critical that the Treasurer fully participates as a partner in the Sigma Xi leadership team. I would be honored to serve in this role.
Bradford B. Walters
Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
RTI International
Brad Walters is Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of RTI International, an independent nonprofit research institution dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. RTI scientists provide research and technical expertise to governments and businesses in more than 40 countries in the areas of health and pharmaceuticals, education and training, surveys and statistics, advanced technology, international development, economic and social policy, energy and the environment, and laboratory and chemistry services. Brad's primary role is to help shepherd drug candidates developed in RTI's laboratories into clinical trials for their evaluation as potential human therapeutics, though he also serves as an advisor to and domain expert on projects throughout the Institute.
As an undergraduate at Harvard, Brad pursued a joint major in chemistry and physics, gradating summa cum laude in 1973, then traveling to London on a Marshall Scholarship. He earned his PhD in the Department of Anatomy and Embryology at University College in 1976, returning to the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology and completing his MD cum laude in 1979. This was followed by an internship in general surgery at Johns Hopkins and residency training in neurological surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He moved to North Carolina in 1985, joining the faculty in the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. As Assistant and then Associate Professor, with colleagues from the Department of Neurology Brad created the Epilepsy Surgery Program, and with colleagues from the Department of Radiation Oncology created the Stereotactic Radiosurgery Program. He left the faculty to complete an MBA at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School, and subsequently in 2002 joined Academy Funds, a pre-seed and seed stage venture capital firm specializing in the commercialization (via spin-outs) of intellectual property based on university research. As Principal and then Partner, he served on the Boards of Directors of Kucera Pharmaceutical Company (and as acting CEO), ParinGenix, and Curry Pharmaceuticals. In 2005 Brad became an independent life sciences consultant, focusing on phase I and phase II projects, until joining RTI in 2007.
Brad served on the initial Editorial Board of Neurosurgery://OnCall from 1996 through 2000. From 1999 to 2006, Brad served as a member of the Board of Directors of NCHICA, a nationally recognized nonprofit consortium dedicated to improving health and care in North Carolina by accelerating the adoption of information technology and enabling policies. While at Academy Funds he was appointed a member of the Building Entrepreneurial Companies Work Group of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center Strategic Plan, and also to the Governor's Task Force on Nanotechnology and North Carolina's Economy. From 2002 through 2004 Brad was on the Board of Directors of the Piedmont Entrepreneurial Network. He continues to serve as a member of the UNC School of Medicine Institutional Review Board (since 1999) and the Science Advisory Board of the University of North Carolina - Greensboro (since 2003).
Remaining active in the medical community, Brad has been a member of the North Carolina Medical Society since 1985, and served on the Executive Council from 1992 to 2000 and as a member of the Finance Committee in 1997 and the Executive Committee in 1997 and 1998. He served as Secretary/Treasurer of the Durham-Orange County Medical Society in 2007, and currently is President-Elect.
Brad has been a member of Sigma Xi since 1972, and was appointed to the Finance Committee in 2008.
Candidate's Statement - Bradford B. Walters
It's been an honor and a pleasure to have been a member of Sigma Xi since my undergraduate days, and over the past year even more of both in beginning to serve the organization as a member of the Finance Committee. These are challenging times for us, with highly predictable but monotonically decreasing membership; your Finance Committee and Treasurer need to work within very narrow boundary conditions, and over the past years have done an outstanding job in preserving our reserves. I would strive to continue in that tradition, and believe my prior experiences have prepared me well. Ultimately, however, to live long and prosper, Sigma Xi must turn the corner and begin to grow our membership. It is critical to our survival. The good news is that, given the continued, virtually inexorable progress of science and technology, there is great opportunity to reverse the trend.
Sigma Xi is uniquely positioned to help advance the causes of science and scientific literacy in the 21st century. Having over my career moved from direct patient care into drug development, my window of therapeutic opportunity has grown from thousands of patients to potential millions. I view the opportunity to serve Sigma Xi in the roles of Treasurer and member of the Board of Directors as similarly enabling.
Back to top | Privacy Policy | Copyright ©2013. All Rights Reserved.
