Former NU president to teach class, consult with researchers

L.Dennis Smith, Ph.D.

University of Nebraska President Emeritus L. Dennis Smith, Ph.D., known for his staunch support of stem cell research, will be on the UNMC campus for the next month to teach a graduate course.

The course, “The Reversibility of the Differentiated State and Stem Cell Formation,” will focus on the fundamentals of regulating gene expression in stem cells and certain differentiating cells.

Dr. Smith also will explore how gene regulation can be controlled, or even reversed, to maintain a purer stem cell state. Lectures will be from 1:30 to 3 p.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays from Sept. 16 to Oct. 9, in the Durham Research Center, Room 8003.

Dr. Smith, professor of biological sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, also will be available to consult with stem cell researchers and post-docs who want to learn about the future of the field and its available career opportunities.

Tom Rosenquist, Ph.D., vice chancellor of research, invited Dr. Smith to UNMC.

“His expertise will add to the mass of strong basic sciences that already characterizes our work,” Dr. Rosenquist said. “Regenerative medicine and stem cell biology are the most important issues in 21st-century biomedical sciences, and UNMC scientists have been leaders in this work for many years. We are in the process of expanding our research and clinical enterprises in this key area.”

Consultations will be held in the same room from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday, Wednesday and Friday, between Sept. 15 and Oct. 10.

E-mail Dr. Smith to make an appointment at ldsmith@nebraska.edu.

President of the University of Nebraska from 1994 to 2004, Dr. Smith was a staunch supporter of stem cell research in 1999, when medical research being conducted at UNMC came under fire. The research, designed to shed light on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, AIDS dementia and multiple sclerosis, relied on fetal tissue.

Dr. Smith at a glance Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. in 1964 in experimental embryology, and his bachelor’s degree in 1959 in zoology and chemistry from Indiana University. He has published almost 100 research papers and numerous abstracts in such areas as cell biology, developmental biology, biochemistry and molecular biology. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1987. His studies some 30 years ago of cell division in frogs helped lay the groundwork for three researchers who ultimately won a Nobel Prize in medicine for identifying the entire cycle of a cell. Dr. Smith was on the faculty of Purdue University from 1969 to 1987 and received an honorary doctor of science from Purdue in 2000. At Purdue, he headed the department of biological sciences from 1980 to 1987. He was employed as a staff scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory from 1964 to 1969 and at Indiana University from 1963 to 1964. He was an instructor in embryology at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory during five summer sessions in the 1970s and 1980s. He has also served as executive vice chancellor of the University of California, Irvine (1990-1994) and was acting chancellor of the Irvine campus from October 1992 to July 1993. Earlier, he had been dean of the School of Biological Sciences at Irvine (1987-1990), where he also served as a faculty member in developmental and cell biology. He was a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development from 1990 to 1995, and was the board’s chairman from 1992 to 1995. He was a member of the Space Science Board of the National Research Council (1984-1991) and served as chairman of the Committee on Space Biology and Medicine (1986-1991). Dr. Smith was a member of the AIBS-NASA Space Biology Peer Review Panel (1980-1985) and the Cell Biology Study Section, National Institutes of Health (1971-1975), which he chaired from 1977 to 1979. He has served on several editorial boards and is a member of several professional societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the International Society of Developmental Biology, the American Society of Cell Biology and the American Society for Microbiology.

State policymakers and religious leaders warned against using public funds for this research and a bill was introduced in the Nebraska Legislature to ban the use of such tissue.

In response, Dr. Smith outlined the critical need for the research. The request to cease the research, Dr. Smith wrote, “strikes at the very heart of academic freedom.”

The Board of Regents subsequently voted unanimously to support the research. Dr. Smith continues to champion the right of scientists to pursue new knowledge in a responsible manner, and in a climate of academic openness.

For his stand, Dr. Smith was presented with the highly coveted American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility in 2002. The award honors scientists and engineers whose exemplary actions, often taken at significant personal cost, have served to foster scientific freedom and responsibility.

Dr. Smith also created the Nebraska Bioethics Advisory Commission, composed of a cross section of scientists and lay people, to develop guidelines for the ethical conduct of future biomedical research at the University of Nebraska.

“The ability to undertake legitimate research without external interference, including that from political and religious sectors, is fundamental to the excellence of our postsecondary institutions,” Dr. Smith has said.

After stepping down as president, Dr. Smith briefly returned to the classroom on a part-time basis in biological sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

It was the regulation of early development work of Dr. Smith and his colleagues in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, with its pioneering applications of gene technology to key biological problems, that helped build a foundation for research today, Dr. Rosenquist said.

“His research was breathtaking in its vision and it profoundly influenced all subsequent research in developmental biology,” he said.

Dr. Smith continued to contribute significantly to the scientific literature even after he became a top university leader. An important 1994 paper on early development in the premiere journal, “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” lists Dr. Smith’s address as “Office of the President, University of Nebraska.”

“This is one of the few cases ever, I think, where a high-powered university executive co-authored a significant paper in basic biological sciences,” Dr. Rosenquist said.

People often ask Dr. Smith what he considers his greatest accomplishment as president of the University of Nebraska. His answer: “Without hesitation, I can say that I have tried to foster a culture of excellence in which research and scholarly study are valued.”