Dr. Qin M. Chen, a naturalized US citizen, has succeeded Dr. Daniel Liebler, who relocated to Vanderbilt University, as the Training Program Director in year 2003. Dr. Chen is well qualified to serve at this position. Her successful academic career serves as a role model for the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Over the last 15 years, Dr. Chen has progressed from a graduate student to a postdoctoral fellow to a tenured faculty member. Dr. Chen received the Ph.D. degree in 1991 under the direction of Dr. James L. Stevens from the W. Alton Jones Cell Science Institute and Clarkson University in upstate New York. In 1991, Dr. Chen joined the Division of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley for a postdoctoral position with Dr. Bruce N. Ames.

She was recruited to the University of Arizona in 1996 as an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in the Department of Pharmacology in the College of Medicine, with a joint appointment in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the College of Pharmacy. In 2002, She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.

Dr. Chen has received several major awards in toxicology, including the First Prize of the Carl C. Smith Graduate Student Research Award from the Mechanism Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) in 1990, a Colgate-Palmolive Postdoctoral fellowship award from SOT in 1992, a National Research and Service Award (NRSA) in 1995 and a Burroughs Wellcome New Investigator Award in 1997. Dr. Chen has developed well-recognized and NIH-funded research programs on mechanisms of oxidant-induced cellular degeneration (funded through R01 ES10826) and of corticosteroid-induced cytoprotection (funded through R01 HL076530). Her research program is highly productive, and she has presented invited lectures at national and international conferences and to pharmaceutical companies and academic institutes.

Dr. Chen served as Chair of the session on “Cell Cycle Control and Genome Stability”, at the Gordon Research Conference on Mechanism of Toxicity (2000), and Chair of the Symposium on “Stress Induced Signal Transduction Pathways” at the SOT Annual Meeting (2003). As a faculty member at the University of Arizona, Dr. Chen has trained six Ph.D. students, two M.S. students and two postdoctoral fellows. In addition, Dr. Chen has served on dissertation committees for nineteen Ph.D. students in the Graduate Programs of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Physiological Sciences, and Cancer Biology. She has served as a coordinator and a teacher for program courses, as the coordinator of the Pharmacology and Toxicology Seminar series.

Dr. Serrine S. Lau, the Director of Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center, serves as an Associate Director for this Training Grant program. Prior to joining the University of Arizona in September of 2003, Dr. Lau was Director of the NIEHS Training Grant at the University of Texas, Austin (1996-2003).

Dr. Lau is nationally and internationally recognized for her work in the area of drug metabolism, molecular toxicology, and proteomics research. Dr. Lau has trained 18 pre- and postdoctoral students who have since established productive careers in toxicology in academic, industrial, and government settings.

Dr. Lau received her Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan in 1980, and was a Senior Staff Fellow in the Laboratory of Experimental Therapeutics and Metabolism at NIH before joining the University of Texas as a faculty member.

In addition to research and educational activities, Dr. Lau has been highly active in professional affairs relating to toxicology. She has served on numerous elected and appointed committees, including: Vice President-elect, Vice President, and President of Mechanism Specialty Section of SOT (2002 – present); Councilor of SOT (2002 – 2004); SOT Education Committee (1999-1993); Awards Committee (1994-1996); and President, Gulf-Coast Regional Chapter of SOT (2000-2002); member, Alumni Steering Committee, Department of Pharmacology, the University of Michigan (1998-present); member, Committee on Emerging Issues and Data on Environmental Contaminants, NRC, National Academy of Sciences (2002-present); member of the Digestive Sciences IRG Study Section Boundaries Team, an advisory committee for the NIH Center for Scientific Review (2002). Dr. Lau serves as an important catalyst and resource for this training grant program.