At the beginning of September, Professor Mark Zabriskie was appointed the new Dean of the College, succeeding Dr. Wayne Kradjan who had served as Dean for 11 years.
Zabriskie received his education at the University of Utah where he obtained a B.S. in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry. He carried out postdoctoral studies at the University of Alberta prior to joining the faculty of the OSU College of Pharmacy in 1992.
“I am honored to be selected to serve as the dean of the College of Pharmacy at OSU and to succeed Wayne Kradjan, who did an outstanding job of leading the college through a period of transition and tremendous growth,” said Zabriskie.
Zabriskie says he’s excited to work with the faculty, students and alumni in his new role as Dean.
“I look forward to being able to impact the future of the college in a greater way than I might have as a faculty member,” he says. “There is a great opportunity to oversee the growth of both the practice and pharmaceutical sciences departments and promote the important research and clinical work our faculty are doing.”
“I’m particularly interested in raising awareness of the central role that pharmacy can occupy on the OSU and OHSU campuses and I’m excited to increase the national prominence of both our research and professional programs,” he says.
“I look forward to developing ways to provide more varied educational, research and experiential opportunities for our graduate and professional students.”
Associate Dean, Gary DeLander, adds, “ Mark’s strengths in scholarship and faculty development will assure continued excellence and growth in all of our programs. He is well respected by his colleagues and his leadership will create a well balanced, effective administrative team.”
Zabriskie’s own research and teaching interests at OSU have focused on antiinfective agents. His laboratory investigates the discovery and biosynthesis of antibiotic microbial natural products. He has been particularly interested in compounds that are effective against the rising number of drug-resistant bacterial infections, as well as malaria and tuberculosis.
Zabriskie is married and has two sons. In his spare time, he and his wife can be found in the mountains—hiking and camping in the summers—snowshoeing and skiing in the wintertime. They both enjoy baseball and travelling.