Dr. Bruce H. Weber, an internationally recognized expert in the fields of biochemical and biological evolution and a veteran chemistry and biochemistry professor at Cal State Fullerton, has received the 2001 Andreoli Biotechnology Service Award from the California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB).

The award salutes outstanding career contributions to the development of biotechnology in the CSU and was presented most recently at the organization's 13th annual symposium.

Weber is the third Cal State Fullerton faculty member to be so honored, in the10-year history of the award.
In nominating the Fullerton resident, Dr. Christopher R. Meyer, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, cited Weber's "truly seminal contributions to the CSU system in the past 30 years in support of the emerging field of biotechnology as a researcher, teacher and mentor."

The award honors Weber's involvement in "many significant programs that demonstrate his continuing leadership in motivating and providing opportunities for students," said Dr. Steve Dahms, CSUPERB director.
As founder and director of the National Institutes of Health Minority Scientist Development (MSD) program at CSUF and the Los Angeles Basin CSU Minority International Research Training (MIRT) program,
Weber has been awarded nearly $6 million in grants to support student research activities.

He has received outstanding evaluations in his teaching of CSUF's core biochemistry course and graduate course work in physical and protein biochemistry, and was honored with the CSUF Outstanding Professor Award in 1979. He joined the university in 1970 and was chair of the chemistry and biochemistry
department from 1994 to 1997.

As undergraduate adviser, Weber has counseled more than 500 students, of which more than 100 women and minority students have gone on to doctoral programs involving biotechnology. Over the years, he has influenced the careers of many, including more than 250 premed students, as a longtime member of the
university's Health Professions Committee.

Weber has made an "enormous difference" in the lives of students by establishing active and successful NIH-funded programs to support minority student participation in research careers, according to Meyer.
Outside of academe, novelist Michael Crichton has acknowledged Weber's expertise, in listing him as a consultant in the best-selling "Lost World," a sequel to "Jurassic Park."

For his work in evolutionary biology, Weber was inducted into the prestigious London-based Linnean Society in 1995. Beginning this fall, the professor will serve a five-year appointment to the Robert Woodworth Chair of Natural Philosophy at Bennington College in Vermont. He will return to CSUF each spring under the provisions of the Faculty Early Retirement Program. He will continue as MIRT director and as associate director of the Minority Scientist Development program.

The Andreoli Biotechnology Service Award is named for the late Dr. Anthony Andreoli, a Cal State L.A. chemistry professor, who was strongly committed to the idea that the CSU has a special role to play in higher education.

Other campus honorees of the award are Dr. Marvin J. Rosenberg, emeritus professor of biology, and Dr. Glenn M. Nagel, former associate dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. In 1996, Nagel was tapped to serve as dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Cal State Long Beach.
CSUPERB is a multicampus program designed to channel systemwide resources and catalyze inter-campus, synergistic endeavors involving biology and chemistry departments, as well as those in engineering, agriculture and computer science.

Dave Reid, CSUF Public Affairs, at (714) 278-4855 or dreid@fullerton.edu

Editor's Note: A photograph of Weber can be downloaded from the university's Web site at
www.fullerton.edu/root/paweb/news.html