University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Neil C. Olson recently named Doug Bowles, PhD, as the chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences. His appointment follows a national search to replace Harold Laughlin who retired after serving as the department chairman for 23 years. Bowles has been the associate chair of the department since 2013.
Bowles earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry in 1984 and a master’s degree in exercise science in 1987 from Kansas State University in Manhattan. He went on to earn a doctorate in exercise physiology in 1992 at the University of Texas, Austin, before coming to the University of Missouri as a National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral fellow in 1992. He became an American Heart Association (AHA) postdoctoral fellow in 1993 and an NIH individual postdoctoral fellow in 1994. At Mizzou, his studies focused on vascular biology, exercise and atherosclerosis.
He was appointed as a research assistant professor at MU’s Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center in 1995, a position he held until 1998, when he became an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and a Dalton investigator. He went on to serve as associate director for the National Center for Gender Physiology at MU, director of the MU Research Catheterization Laboratory, associate professor and professor of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology, and associate professor and professor in Biomedical Sciences at the CVM.
“My goal is to build upon the solid foundation left by Dr. Laughlin to make our department the model for how a basic science department excels in research and contributes to interdisciplinary research at Mizzou, while maintaining excellence in education of professional and graduate students,” Bowles said of his plans for Biomedical Sciences.
In addition to his NIH and AHA fellowships, he was named an American Physiological Society Cardiovascular Section fellow, and an American College of Sports Medicine fellow (ACSM). He was also honored with the NIH Independent Scientist Award in 2005 and the ACSM New Investigator Award in 1998.
He is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine, American Heart Association and American Physiological Society.
He has more than 70 scientific research papers published, served on multiple NIH and AHA review panels and has reviewed manuscripts for a dozen journals. His research program has been funded by multiple NIH grants, in addition to funding from the American Heart Association, NASA and research contracts with private industry and foundations.