DSHB to support Faculty Scholar awards for humanities faculty

The Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank will help humanities faculty pursue research
Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Thanks to new and unique support from the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank (DSHB) at the University of Iowa, selected humanities faculty in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences will be able to advance their research.

DSHB will transfer $10,000 annually to support up to five rotating DSHB Faculty Scholar positions in CLAS. Each DSHB Faculty Scholar will receive $2,500 over two years to defray research-related expenses such as travel and archiving. 

DSHB Director Professor David Soll
Professor David Soll, DSHB Director 

​DSHB Director David Soll, the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver/Emil Witschi Professor of Biology at the UI, said the funds are meant to advance the broad-based education of liberal arts students. "These DSHB Faculty Scholarships will be directed not to scientists, but to professors in areas that teach our future scientists how to read, write, and think," Soll said. "We look at this as an investment in the future vitality of the scientific disciplines. All scientists need the skills that the humanities teach in order to engage in forward-looking, ethical research and communicate the relevance of their work to society."

CLAS Dean Chaden Djalali hailed DSHB's vision. "I cannot thank the DSHB board of directors enough for this support allowing our college to establish these faculty scholar awards," Djalali said. "Their support demonstrates the fundamental nature of advancing knowledge and understanding across the disciplines. Humanities professors will be empowered to do important work with these resources from their colleagues in the sciences."

The not-for-profit DSHB is housed in the UI Department of Biology, but is independently funded solely through sales of biological samples to biomedical researchers. Created in 1986 by the National Institutes of Health as a national resource, DSHB exists to facilitate biomedical research by providing monoclonal antibody samples to researchers at a fraction of the cost of commercial markets. With the largest non-commercial collection of such samples in the world, which are used to fight cancer and other diseases, DSHB has some 110,000 customers worldwide—including about 200 at the UI—and holds exclusive distribution rights with the National Cancer Institute. 

Djalali will develop criteria for awarding the DSHB Faculty Scholar awards, beginning in fall 2016. 

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.