Department Head/Professor

Mississippi State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine is seeking applications for the position of Head of the Department of Basic Sciences. The department has 23 faculty positions and is one of three academic departments in the college. The majority of the department’s faculty have > 0.50 FTE research appointment. The department’s research programs primarily span molecular mechanisms of infectious and non-infectious diseases. Areas of emphasis include infectious diseases of public health importance, immunology, environmental toxicology, computational systems biology and informatics, and diseases with agricultural impact related to aquatics, livestock, and poultry. Faculty in the department also teach and train graduate students and students in the professional veterinary curriculum, as well as perform a variety of service activities. The department currently has 41 graduate students.

The department is the academic home unit for Mississippi State University’s Center for Environmental Health Sciences, the NIH-funded Center for Biomedical Research Excellence in Pathogen-Host Interactions, the USAID-funded “Feed the Future” Innovation Lab on Fish, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Marine Mammal and Turtle Conservation, Recovery, and Monitoring Project. The total value of extramural grants with a PI in Basic Sciences is more than $43M.

The college is seeking an exceptional individual with strong leadership and interpersonal skills, demonstrated participation in professional activities, a recognized record of research, scholarship, and competitive extramural funding, knowledge of commodity group needs, and knowledge of intellectual property development. The successful candidate will be an academic leader who will foster intellectual productivity and collegiality. He or she will have a strategic vision for growing the research program and ensuring that the departmental teaching commitments are met. The individual must interface effectively across disciplines at the department, college and university levels within biomedical, agricultural, and life science communities, as well as with stakeholder and commodity groups statewide, nationally, and internationally.

A startup package and laboratory space will be available to the successful candidate if needed. Major equipment available to the Department of Basic Sciences includes a Novocyte Quanteon Flow Cytometer with 4 lasers and 25 color analysis, a Novocyte 3000 flow cytometer with 3 lasers and 13 color analysis, a Becton-Dickinson FACSAria III high speed cell sorter, multiple quantitative PCR machines, a Luminex multiplexed bead array reader, FPLC, multiple HPLCs with various types of detectors including a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer, ultracentrifuge, preparative centrifuges, multiple -80°C freezers and a -170 LN2 freezer (for cell lines). Other Core facilities on campus have transmission and scanning EMs and a confocal microscope as well as atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and 3T MRI.  We have access to the MSU Supercomputing facility (High Performance Computing Collaboratory), which has a Cray computer ranked the 11th fastest at an academic institution in the U.S. We also have personnel at MSU who can assist with computational biology projects.

Minimum qualifications include a PhD or equivalent. A professional degree in veterinary medicine is desirable but not required. A record of competitive extramural research funding, an excellent record of publications, and a record of successfully mentoring graduate students, demonstrated by their post-graduate positions, are required. The successful candidate must have an academic record that qualifies for an appointment as full professor with tenure.

Founded in 1878, Mississippi State University is a comprehensive Carnegie Research I, public, land-grant university. MSU offers more than 175 programs leading to a baccalaureate, master’s or doctoral degree through the following eight colleges: Agriculture and Life Sciences, Architecture, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering, Forest Resources, and Veterinary Medicine. At MSU, students are engaged in learning in the classroom and in countless co-curricular activities, and a diverse, award-winning faculty is engaged in all three facets of the University’s land-grant mission: learning, research, and service. MSU’s 4,200-acre campus is located in Starkville, the heart of Mississippi’s Golden Triangle.

Recognized as one of the best value college towns in the nation, Starkville offers an abundance of places to see, events to attend, and activities to enjoy. A variety of shopping and dining options in conjunction with SEC sporting events, outdoor recreation, historical sites, community theatre, art galleries, festivals, and concerts, ensure something for everyone. Local access to quality healthcare and a moderate climate also make Starkville an appealing place to live, as do its affordable housing costs, low property taxes and low crime rate. Excellent public and private primary and secondary education choices and a diverse population are additional selling points for this welcoming city, where life moves at a comfortable pace, but there’s always plenty to do.

Review of applications will begin in February, 2019, and will continue until the position is filled. Applicants should provide a letter of intent stating their interest and professional goals, curriculum vitae, and the names of three references to Dr. Andrew Mackin, Search Committee Chair, College of Veterinary Medicine, Mississippi State University, P.O. Box 6100, Mississippi State, MS 39760 (662 325 6631) or electronically to mackin@cvm.msstate.edu.

Mississippi State University is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, ethnicity, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, disability status, age, sexual orientation, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We always welcome nominations and applications from women, members of any minority group, and others who share our passion for building a diverse community that reflects the diversity in our student population.