Rob Denell is not only the director of the Terry C. Johnson Center
for Basic Cancer Research at Kansas State University, but he is
also a cancer survivor himself. He was one of the center's original
faculty affiliates, beginning in 1980. He was named director in
2003. The cancer center provides support to both faculty and students
involved in basic cancer research at K-State.
Denell conducts genetic, developmental and molecular research on insects, focusing on the genetic control of early embryonic organization. The genes he studies are shared with humans and are especially important because they have been implicated in the origins of some cancers.
Denell has served for the past decade as biology's associate director for extramural activities. In 2000, he was named a university distinguished professor.
He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1987. He has received more than $12 million in funding for his research. He has received numerous honors during his career at K-State, including the Conoco Distinguished Graduate Faculty Member award and the state Dolph Simons (Higuchi) Award in recognition of achievement in biological sciences.
Denell earned his bachelor of arts in zoology from the University of California, Riverside, in 1965, and his master's and doctorate degrees in genetics at the University of Texas, Austin, in 1968 and 1969, respectively. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego, and a Ford Foundation research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, before coming to K-State in 1973. Denell also has served as a visiting professor at the University of Washington and at the University of California, San Diego.
Denell
can be reached at 785-532-6705 or by e-mail at rdenell@k-state.edu.