Collis Geren, Dean of Graduate School, to Retire After 34 Years at University of Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Collis Geren, longtime dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for research at the University of Arkansas, has announced his retirement, effective June 30, 2010.

“It’s been one heck of a roller coaster ride,” Geren said. “The University of Arkansas, to me, is the students, pure and simple.”

Provost Sharon Gaber said a search for Geren’s successor will begin sometime this fall.

“Collis has been an amazing asset to the University of Arkansas,” Gaber said. “He has built the research infrastructure and helped to dramatically increase externally funded grants to the university. He has single-handedly increased interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary degree programs and increased the number of graduate students.”

“Collis will leave big shoes to fill,” said Chancellor G. David Gearhart. “He has done extraordinary things for our graduate programs and his presence on campus will be greatly missed. His abilities — not only in his administration and management of the Graduate School and the university’s research program, but his teaching, his own research and his obvious enjoyment of working with students — will make him hard to replace.”

Geren began teaching chemistry at the University of Arkansas in 1976 after working for two years at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Less than a year later, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences awarded him a $110,000 research grant. The grant paid for Geren’s salary and benefits for five years while he researched the toxic components of poisonous venoms.

In addition to poisonous snakes such as rattlesnakes and copperheads, his research covered brown recluse spiders – which are common in Arkansas and his home state of Oklahoma, but little studied. His work resulted in more than 50 published works.

He was president of the honorary science fraternity Sigma Xi in 1983-84, and became chair of the department of chemistry and biochemistry in 1986. That same year, the Arkansas Alumni Association recognized him with its Distinguished Alumni Award for teaching and research.

In 1991, he was appointed associate vice chancellor for research and dean of the Graduate School, which included oversight of doctoral fellowships and research funds.

He came in at a time when state leaders were lamenting the “brain drain,” the number of talented scholars who were leaving Arkansas for college in other states. At the time, fewer than 2,400 students were enrolled in the Graduate School. By the fall 2008, the Graduate School enrollment had climbed to 3,370. Under Geren’s watch, new awards for research grew from $41.2 million in 1997 to $72.3 million in 2006.

Geren earned his bachelor’s degree at Northeastern Oklahoma State College, a master’s degree at Kansas State College in Pittsburg, and his doctoral degree from Oklahoma State University.

Upon retirement, Geren said, he plans to rebuild automobiles, a longtime hobby. University officials plan to recommend Geren be named a dean emeritus upon his retirement.