Basson and Singh will lead and guide research effort at SMHS

January 20, 2017

GRAND FORKS, N.D.—Marc D. Basson M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.S.; and Brij Singh, Ph.D., have been named to oversee and coordinate the research effort at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences. Basson has been named senior associate dean for Medicine and Research, and Singh was named assistant dean for Research.

“I am so pleased that Drs. Basson and Singh have accepted these additional responsibilities,” said UND Vice President for Health Affairs and SMHS Dean Joshua Wynne, M.D., M.B.A., M.P.H., when he selected Basson and Singh. “We have just come off our most successful year ever from the standpoint of external funding, and I expect the dynamic duo of Marc and Brij to help guide us to even greater heights of achievement.”

Basson will continue to oversee all of the clinical, community, and population-based departments, centers, and programs within the medical school component of the SMHS, sharing oversight for SMHS clinical operations with the Associate Dean for Health Sciences Tom Mohr, who oversees the departments in the health sciences portion of the SMHS.

Basson is an educator, scientist, and surgeon who is recognized internationally for his research on the extracellular physical forces that affect intracellular signaling in cancer biology and the healing of the gastrointestinal tract of critically ill or injured patients. He is currently the associate dean for medicine, where he helps to coordinate the School’s teaching, clinical, and research efforts related to medical students, residents, and practicing physicians. All of the clinical department chairs as well as the regional campus deans report to Basson, who has been associate dean for medicine at the SMHS since August 2015. Basson will report to Dean Wynne.

As assistant dean for Research, Singh will work in cooperation with UND’s vice president for Research, where he will design, develop and implement effective strategic plans for increasing the quality and quantity of sponsored research in the School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

Singh is an accomplished senior biomedical scientist who has been at the SMHS since 2003, where he has helped build an internationally recognized program studying molecular mechanisms of particular types of calcium channels in normal and pathological conditions. The well-known nature of his research has garnered Singh strong and consistent funding for his research, particularly continuous funding with the highest level of grants and awards from the National Institutes of Health. In May of 2016, Singh was selected by his peers to be a Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor, the highest honor the University can bestow upon its faculty. Singh will report to Basson.

The combined talents of Basson and Singh will provide creative leadership and guidance to faculty to develop, promote, facilitate, and sustain an increased culture of research excellence and productivity within the School of Medicine & Health Sciences. In fiscal year 2016, the School received over $27 million in research funding—a record amount. The UND SMHS ranks in the top quarter of the 28 community-based medical schools in the United States for external funding of sponsored research projects. The School’s goal is to be No. 1.

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Denis F. MacLeod
Assistant Director, Office of Alumni and Community Relations
University of North Dakota
School of Medicine & Health Sciences
501 N Columbia Rd, Stop 9037 | Room 1106 | Grand Forks, ND 58202-9037
701.777.2733 direct | 218.779.3107 cell
denis.macleod@UND.edu
www.med.UND.edu/