Research and Technology Transfer
will be focus for Dr. Elizabeth Hood

Dr. Elizabeth E. Hood is the new associate vice chancellor for research and technology transfer at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

"We are very pleased to attract a scientist and administrator of the caliber of Beth Hood," commented Dr. Susan Davis Allen, vice chancellor for research and academic affairs. "Dr. Hood has experience as a faculty member, as an industrial scientist with a large biotech company, as vice president of a start-up company, and with a funding agency, the National Science Foundation (NSF)."

Most recently, Dr. Hood was a program director in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at NSF. Prior to that, she was associated with a plant biotechnology start-up company in College Station, Texas, where she led the formation of a transgenic plant research group and served as principal investigator for grants involving industrial proteins.

Her other experience includes serving as research manager in cell biology for Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a Fortune 500 company, and as a faculty member at Utah State University.

"Her broadly-based experience will be crucial to supporting our emerging research enterprise at ASU," Dr. Allen also said.

Her duties are to help all faculty obtain relevant research funding and to facilitate transfer of university-generate technology into economically viable enterprises.

"I am really happy to be here at ASU with its growing campus and emerging research component," Dr. Hood said. "This position allows me to utilize my experience in academics, government and industry. I love to build new programs and I think ASU has great potential to make significant contributions to the economic growth of Jonesboro and all of northeast Arkansas."

A native of Oklahoma, she has more than 70 publications and patents and is often invited to speak to national and international scientific forums.

She completed her doctoral degree in plant biology from Washington University in St. Louis, and her master's degree in botany at Oklahoma State University.

She added that Dr. Hood is one of several recent appointees who were attracted to ASU largely because of the Biosciences Institute. The increased emphasis on research, made possible by the state's investment in ABI, also has helped facilitate the hiring of other top faculty and administrators at ASU.