Professor Richard Gonzalez Named Leadership Fellow

Richard J. Gonzalez, USD chair and professor of the Biology Department, has been selected to serve as a Vision and Change Leadership Fellow. Gonzalez is now part of a team of 40 Leadership Fellows who were competitively selected from an application pool of over 250.

The Leadeship Fellows team is embarking on a year-long initiative integral to the goals of the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE). PULSE is a joint effort by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health/NIGMS (NIH/NIGMS) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to stimulate systemic changes within biology departments at all types of post-secondary educational institutions, based upon the findings from the 2011 report Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action and other similar calls for transformation of undergraduate life sciences education. 

After evaluating more than 250 applications, the PULSE Steering Committee selected the fellows announced in late September.  These individuals come from 24 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and represent research universities, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive/regional universities and two-year colleges. 

Gonzalez is a comparative animal physiologist focusing on the respiratory, acid-base, and ion regulation physiology of aquatic animals. research examines the respiratory, acid-base, and ion regulation physiology of aquatic animals that inhabit harsh environments.