Business Leadership

Eric Jack, Ph.D., was named dean of the UAB School of Business in April following a nationwide search. Jack, who had been the school’s interim dean since October 2012, came to UAB in 2001. Previously he served as associate dean for faculty development and research and is a past recipient of the UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, He served in the U.S. Air Force for 21 years before beginning an academic career; his research interests include operations strategy, health care management, service operations, and supply chain management.

Interdisciplinary Innovator

Robert E. Palazzo, Ph.D., who had served as interim dean of the UAB College of Arts and Sciences since October 2012, was named to the permanent post effective June 1. Palazzo came to UAB in 2012 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he had been a professor of biology since 2002 and most recently served as provost. He is on the board of advisors for Scientific American magazine and is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, among other notable scientific posts. His research interests include centrosomes and cellular organization, cell replication, and cancer.

Physician-in-Chief

James A. Bonner, M.D., Merle M. Salter Professor and Chair of the UAB Department of Radiation Oncology, has been elected as president of the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation, a nonprofit, group-physician practice at UAB that includes The Kirklin Clinic. Bonner’s research interests include methods of enhancing radio‑ sensitization for the treatment of cancer, such as the combination of chemotherapy with radiotherapy. He was the principal investigator of a landmark trial of the drug cetuximab along with radiation in the treatment of head and neck cancer.