2005 Alabama Professor of the Year - Dr. Guy Caldwell

Curriculum Vitae

Guy A. Caldwell, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where since 1999 he has held an undergraduate professorial appointment. Dr. Caldwell is a native of the New York City area. He received his undergraduate degree in biology from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, in 1986 and his Ph.D. in cell, molecular and developmental biology from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1993. Subsequently, he held two postdoctoral fellowships from the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke at Columbia University in New York.

He is the author of two editions of a widely adopted textbook, Biotechnology: A Laboratory Course, sold worldwide in three languages by Elsevier. He is now under contract with Wiley to write a new textbook for international distribution based on his inquiry-based undergraduate genomics lecture/laboratory course, Integrated Genomics. Caldwell currently teaches courses in molecular genomics, neuronal signaling mechanisms, general biology, and a nationally acclaimed interdisciplinary seminar on the societal impact of the Human Genome Project. His course entitled The Language of Research indoctrinates undergraduate students into the culture of research laboratories and teaches them how to read scientific literature. Each summer, he directs a two-week research workshop and runs a poster session for undergraduate research interns. He serves as the faculty advisor for the Alabama chapter of the Beta Beta Beta national biology honor society and helped initiate a new undergraduate written and edited scientific journal, JOSHUA, The Journal of Science and Health at The University of Alabama.

A number of Caldwell’s undergraduate students have received national recognition for research conducted in the Caldwell lab under Caldwell’s mentorship. In his first five years as a professor, he has trained two Goldwater scholars, one Truman scholar, one recipient of the Benjamin Cummings Biology Prize, and one Merit Award winner from the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Notably, he has had a student named to the USA Today All-USA Academic Team for four years in a row (2002-2005). Undergraduates have co-authored manuscripts published in top biomedical research journals such as Human Molecular Genetics (twice) and Nucleic Acids Research, and have had their work highlighted in The Bulletin of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Scientist, and Science magazine. In 2003, a student presentation at the American Society for Cell Biology international meeting was selected as one of only 13 stories at this conference of over 10,000 attendees for inclusion in their Press Book; a document distributed as an educational tool to high schools and media outlets across the U.S.

In 2001, Caldwell was named a Basil O'Connor Scholar of The March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation for his research into the molecular basis of childhood birth defects of the brain. This work included establishing a new animal model for epilepsy. Caldwell’s other research has been funded by the nation’s major movement disorders research organization in the country, including the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, Parkinson's Disease Foundation, National Parkinson Foundation, the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Last year, the Caldwell lab was selected as one of only 11 groups worldwide to represent the research goals of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in their Protein Degradation Grant Initiative. For his combined teaching and research efforts, Caldwell was also chosen as the recipient of a 2003 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, the most prestigious honor for teacher-scholars bestowed by the NSF. He is also a 2005 nominee for Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Dr. Caldwell is an active advocate for public science education and was one of four invited participants in a 2001 Scientist/Media Roundtable sponsored by the Washington D.C.-based advocacy group Research America! and hosted by former NBC Today Show host Jim Hartz. Each spring, with the minority sorority Zeta Phi Beta, he runs a workshop on the societal impact of the Human Genome Project for the local minority community. He is sought after as a public lecturer at Parkinson’s and dystonia support groups throughout the U.S. and has given keynote lectures at patient symposia in Orlando, Seattle, Birmingham, and Los Angeles. He resides in Tuscaloosa with his wife and research colleague, Dr. Kim Caldwell, and their overfed pet bunny rabbit, Rusty.