A&M Scientist Receives Endowed Chair

(HOUSTON) – Richard H. Finnell, Ph.D., professor of environmental and genetic medicine at the Institute of Biosciences and Technology and interim executive director and president of the new Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine, has been awarded an endowed chair by the Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation.
Dr. Finnell will become the Margaret M. Alkek Professor of Medical Genetics at the Institute of Biosciences and Technology. Located in the famed Texas Medical Center in Houston, the institute is a part of The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center.
Dr. Finnell has had a distinguished career researching the causes of complex birth defects. A graduate of the University of Oregon, the University of British Columbia and the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center, Dr. Finnell became a faculty member at Texas A&M University in the early 1990’s before becoming director of the Center for Human Molecular Genetics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. In 2001, he became director of the Institute of Biosciences and Technology, which provides a critical link between A&M System scientists and cutting-edge technologies being developed in Houston. In 2004 the A&M System bestowed its prestigious Regents Professorship on him. He had previously received the Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence in 1995 and the Texas A&M University Distinguished Achievement Award in Research in 1997.
Dr. Finnell was instrumental in developing the Center for Environmental and Genetic Medicine. He is involved in the development of numerous research collaborations within the Texas Medical Center, including a relationship with the Texas Institute for Research and Rehabilitation and The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, as well as collaborations with scientists worldwide.