MU’s Life Sciences Director to Step Aside

Sep. 17–The man hired to lead the University of Missouri-Columbia Life Sciences Center said he plans to hand over the reins at the end of the month.

Michael Roberts, who began as director of the $60 million center in January 2004, said he plans to leave his post as director to focus on his own research. Roberts will remain at MU.

“Twenty months of trying to juggle his research program and the tasks from the Life Sciences Center can take its toll,” said Karla Carter, Roberts’ executive assistant.

Roberts, 64, was unavailable for comment because he is at a stem cell research conference in India, Carter said.

Roberts’ research focuses on placentas and how they develop. Using stem cells, his current research examines the chemical signals associated with pregnancy and might eventually help women who are prone to miscarriages.

While Carter said she had not had a specific indication that Roberts would step down, she wasn’t entirely surprised.

“He’s had some very interesting research come in the last four or five months,” she said. “I had no inkling, but you could see he was very excited about where his research programs were going.”

Roberts’ announcement comes on the heels of the resignation of Michael Chippendale, who was second in charge at the center before leaving in August to pursue a career in the private sector. Bruce McClure, chairman of the biochemistry department, has already been hired to replace Chippendale.

Jake Halliday, project leader for the Mid-Missouri Technology Business Incubator, was included on the committee that selected Roberts.

“Mike’s done a great job,” Halliday said. “He took the job at its point of highest risk — right at the takeoff point — and took the Life Sciences Center forward.”

Several crucial pieces of the research center have fallen into place under Roberts’ leadership, from recruiting researchers — the center houses 27 primary investigators — to securing grants for state-of-the-art equipment. Roberts has also led the charge to develop a long-term business plan for the center.

Chippendale, who began working on development of the Life Sciences Center in 1994, said he wasn’t surprised Roberts stayed on less than two years.

“I knew from the beginning that he really did this because he wanted to lay a good foundation for the Life Sciences Center,” he said. “I think he felt things were at the point where he could pass the baton.”

Halliday said he believes it will be easy for the university to attract another person to lead the center.

“I expect we’ll have a world-class set of candidates for this,” he said, comparing the job Roberts and Chippendale did to “storming a beach.”

“Often the team that storms the beach is not the team that takes things to the next level,” he said.

MU said in a news release that Roberts will be on research leave from Oct. 1 through January and that he would resume teaching and other academic duties next year.

Roberts’ research has been supported since 1973 with grants from the National Institutes of Health, and he has won numerous awards, including being named Researcher of the Year at MU.

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