By Phil Williams
phil@franklin.uga.edu
David Puett, professor and head of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at the  university, has been named a Regents Professor. His appointment was approved by the board at its meeting in March.
Regents Professorships are granted by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents to outstanding faculty members for an initial period of three years, and are renewable for a second three-year period, based upon recommendations. Awardees receive a $10,000 permanent increase in salary, in addition to the merit raise, in the year of initial appointment. They also receive a yearly fund of $5,000 in support of their scholarship.
“I am truly honored to be the recipient of this prestigious professorship at the University of Georgia,” says Puett, “and most appreciative of the support of my colleagues, the administration and the Board of Regents.”
Puett’s research is primarily concerned with molecular and cellular biochemical endocrinology. Current emphasis is on a number of hormones and their G protein-coupled receptors that have important implications in reproduction, development and metabolism. He is also involved in new drug discovery by studying the effects of natural products, obtained from plants traditionally used by indigenous groups for medicinal purposes, on the reproductive, cardiovascular and pulmonary systems.
In collaboration with an oncologist from the Medical College of Georgia, Puett is developing new markers for the early detection of cancer, and he serves as coordinator for the University of Georgia in the statewide cancer initiative. Other interests include the origins of science and technology in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, scientific development during the Renaissance, and ancient history. He has been on the faculty at UGA since 1993.
Puett received his bachelor’s degree in physics from North Carolina State University in 1961, his master’s degree, also in physics, in 1965 from the University of North Carolina, and his doctoral degree in biochemistry, also from UNC, in 1969.
He began his post-doctoral career as an assistant professor of biochemistry at Vanderbilt University in 1969 and became a full professor there in 1979. In 1983, he became professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Miami in Florida, and director of that university’s interdepartmental Reproductive Sciences and Endocrinology Laboratory. He also had secondary appointments at the University of Miami in medicine and in obstetrics and gynecology.
The author of more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as numerous book chapters and books, he has served on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals. He currently directs or co-directs research grants of more than $800,000 from the National Institutes of Health.
As a teacher, Puett regularly participates in several undergraduate and graduate courses, including human biochemistry and disease, molecular and cellular endocrinology, retrovirology and cell signaling. He has directed 22 doctoral dissertations and master’s theses for seven students, and is currently serving as a senior Foundation Fellow.
The intent of Regents Professorships is to honor truly distinguished scholarship. Other Regents Professors at UGA are R. Bruce King, chemistry; Edward Kanemasu and Malcolm Sumner, crop and soil sciences; Bernard Patten, ecology; Mike Doyle, food science and technology; Cameron Fincher, higher education and psychology; Charles Hofer, management; Jeremy Kilpatrick, mathematics education; William Gary Love, physics; Emory Thomas, history; and Delmer Dunn and Loch Johnson, political science. |
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