Jean W. MacCluer and Bennett Dyke Lectureship
The Jean W. MacCluer and Bennett Dyke Lectureship was established with a generous gift of $100,000 from Dr. Jean MacCluer to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2015. The fund supports an annual lecture by an internationally recognized scientist. During their visits, guest lecturers learn about the research programs being conducted at the STDOI and about opportunities for future collaboration. Pioneers in the field of genetic epidemiology, Jean MacCluer, Ph.D., and Bennett Dyke, Ph.D. were among the first to apply computational approaches to assessing the genetic determinants of risk for complex disease. Drs. MacCluer and Dyke were the first two faculty members recruited to the Department of Genetics at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) in San Antonio by the Department’s founding Chair, STDOI Professor John VandeBerg. Dr. MacCluer was the head of Population Genetics at SFBR (now the Texas Biomedical Research Institute) from 1981 until her retirement in 2008. Among the first postdoctoral fellows she recruited to the Population Genetics Lab was STDOI Genomics Computing Center Director Dr. John Blangero. Dr. Blangero worked closely with Dr. MacCluer throughout his career at SFBR, particularly in research on the genetic determinants of risk for cardiovascular disease in Mexican Americans. Dr. Dyke was STDOI Director Sarah Williams-Blangero’s mentor during her postdoctoral fellowship. Dr. Dyke developed the department’s computer infrastructure and pioneered the use of parallel computing in genetic analysis, work that ultimately led to creation of the STDOI’s 12,000 processor cluster MEDUSA. In addition to having a significant influence on the analytical approaches and research designs used at the STDOI today, Drs. MacCluer and Dyke had a major impact on the career development of numerous scientists in the STDOI who worked them in the past including Joanne Curran, Vince Diego, Harald Göring, Tom Howard, Mark Kos, Satish Kumar, Sandra Laston, and Michael Mahaney. Thank you Jean and Bennett!
Bennett Dyke and Jean W. MacCluer Endowed Professorship
The Bennett Dyke and Jean W. MacCluer Endowed Professorship was established as the result of a $100,000 gift to UTRGV from Dr. Dyke. The Professorship provides support to an STDOI faculty member working in the area of genetic epidemiology. Drs. Dyke and MacCluer were pioneers in the field of genetic epidemiology. The Population Genetics laboratory they established at the Southwest Foundatrion for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas fostered the careers of many STDOI faculty. They also for many years ran the Genetic Analysis Workships, which were a testing ground for analytical methods designed to assess genetic risk for complex disease. Professor Harald Goring currently holds the Bennett Dyke and Jean W. MacCluer Endowed Professorship in Genetic Epidemiology.
