Please welcome Dr. Joel Baines as the College’s Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education.

With the title comes new responsibilities for the James Law Professor of Virology. As the associate dean, he oversees the doctoral program at the College of Veterinary Medicine; the Veterinary Investigators’ Program for veterinary students seeking research experiences; and several advanced training programs for clinicians, including the Clinical Fellows Program. He also directs efforts to help scientists secure external funding for research.

His most ambitious goal, though, has the potential to unite the worlds of basic and applied science in a manner that will advance the health and well-being of animals and people.

“The College is in a unique position to conduct research that benefits all species,” said Baines, who is leading an effort to strengthen the clinical research programs at the College. “We are at the beginning of a new era in veterinary medicine, an era in which disease mechanisms can be used to explain the physical manifestations of the condition. This level of understanding can lead to novel therapies.”

Baines, a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the College, joined the department in 1993. He received a BS in Microbiology from Kansas State University in 1979 and a VMD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983. He then received a PhD from Cornell University in 1988, where he studied the molecular virology of feline coronaviruses.

He obtained postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago, where he studied the molecular virology of herpes simplex virus replication. In addition to his duties as associate dean, Dr. Baines will continue his research program with continual funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1995.