CBR Member Shailesh Lal Promoted to Full Professor

At their April 1st meeting, the Oakland University Board of Trustees approved the promotion of CBR member Shailesh Lal, of the Department of Biological Sciences, to Full Professor, effective August 15.

Lal received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Nebraska. He was then a postdoc at the University of Illinois, the University of Florida, and Iowa State University before his appointment at OU in 2001.

A major thrust of his research is focused on the molecular and genetic analysis of Helitrons and related transposable elements in the maize (corn) genome, and he published a seminal paper on this topic, “The maize genome contains a Helitron insertion,” in 2003 in the journal Plant Cell. Helitrons are a novel family of eukaryotic transposable elements that are responsible for the movement of gene sequences within the maize genome. His recent work includes highly cited publications that appeared in the journals Molecular Biology and Evolution and Genetics. Last August, Lal received a four-year, $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. He is also the president of Oakland University’s chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.