HELP US COVER THIS STORY WITH MORE INFO, LINKS, ETC, IN THE COMMENTS SECTION. IF YOU HAVE A BETTER PHOTO AND DETAILS, PLEASE E-MAIL SAJA[at]COLUMBIA.EDU
UPDATE (Feb. 14, 2010): Added details below about Amy Bishop's 1986 shooting of her brother and her being a suspect in a 1993 bombing plot - see below.
An Indian-American professor was among the three professors killed during a Friday afternoon shooting on the campus of the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Professor Gopi K. Podila, chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences and two other faculty members, Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson, were killed. Three others were also injured in the incident.
A biology professor, Amy Bishop, has been reportedly taken into custody in connection with the incident. It is alleged that she was denied tenure. A Harvard-trained biologist, she was considered a "research star" in the department.
You can follow the story here at Google News.
Details about Alabama governor's response and much more in these stories in the Kolkata Telegraph by SAJAer K.P. Nayar: Feb. 13 and Feb. 16.
UPDATE: In 1986, Amy Bishop shot her brother to death in what was then called an accident. A new investigation is going to take place.
In 1993, she and her
husband were suspects
in a bomb plot to kill a Harvard Medical School professor.
And then there's this:
During a search of Bishop's computer, authorities found a draft of a novel that Bishop was writing about a female scientist who had killed her brother and was hoping to make amends by becoming a great scientist, according to a person who was briefed on the investigation and spoke to the Globe on the condition of anonymity.
Excellent
coverage at Boston.com, now with a new special section (thanks
to Boston Globe's David
Beard for the alert).
Podila's site has been taken off line, but the cached version is below.
In April 2007, we covered the shooting death of Prof. G.V. Loganathan in the Virginia Tech shootings; in Jan. 2008, we covered the shooting death of Duke PhD student Abhijit Mahato; in Dec. 2007, we covered the shooting deaths of Louisiana State University PhD students Chandrasekhar Reddy Kommaand Kiran Kumar Allam.
My personal thoughts, as a professor at an American University for the last 17 years:
Workplace violence is, sadly, a routine story in America. And gun violence at universities, it seems, even more so. Of course, the overwhelming majority of campuses are extremely safe and that's why the occasional eruptions of violence are even more attention-grabbing.
Almost all such stories are about acts perpetrated by students, so I was surprised to see a professor is the alleged shooter in the Alabama case.
Getting tenure or being denied tenure - a decision that is made outside your department, at the university level - is a life-changing milestone in a professor's career. You get tenure and, for all practical purposes, you have a job for life. You get denied tenure and it means some of your colleagues have, in effect, rejected the worthiness of your career's work. Not only is it embarrassing and confusing, you have year or less to find a new job, which often means uprooting your family and moving to a new city or state and establishing your credentials, research, etc, all over again.
If SAJAforum's posting earlier in the day about the possibility of Pakistani-American Shahid Khan becoming the owner of the St. Louis Rams football team was a sign of how South Asians are increasingly become part of the fabric of American life, so, sadly, is this particular shooting.
HELP US COVER THIS STORY WITH MORE INFO, LINKS, ETC, IN THE COMMENTS SECTION. IF YOU HAVE A BETTER PHOTO AND DETAILS, PLEASE E-MAIL SAJA[at]COLUMBIA.EDU
[Cached version of Prof. Podila's site]
Dr. G. K. Podila
Chair
Department of Biological Sciences
Research Areas
Engineering tree Biomass for Bioenergy. Functional Genomics of Plant-microbe interactions, Plant Molecular biology and Biotechnology
Research Description
(1) Functional genomics of plant-microbe interactions: Under beneficial interactions, our lab is studying early gene expression resulting from ectomycorrhizal formation, in order to identify genes essential for ectomycorrhizal symbiosis. Our lab is one of the first labs to genetically engineer mycorrhizal fungi for functional genomic studies. Most recently, our lab is involved in coordinating the first genome-sequencing project on ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor by Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute. The L. bicolor genome sequence is now publicly available at JGI web site. Dr. Podila's lab is a member of International Steering committee involved in genome projects of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices and also poplar rust fungus Melampsora. Funding:NSF
(2) Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology: Our lab is pursuing molecular basis of developmental control of reproductive tissues and vascular tissues (wood formation) using poplar as a model system. Studies include cloning, characterization, and protein-protein interaction of MADS-box family transcription factors that control these processes. We are also pursuing characterization of promoters from these genes that can be used for targeted gene expression in transgenic trees and to regulate woody biomass and reproductive development. For the last 12 years our lab is involved in developing genetically engineered conifers and hardwood trees, through gene stacking techniques for increasing cellulosic biomass for bioenergy. Other ongoing projects in our lab include cloning and characterization of plant defense genes and antioxidant genes from aspen and developing transgenic trees with enhanced Resistance to pests and oxidative stresses and increased carbon sequestration. Current Funding:DOE.
(3) Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics: Our lab is currently collaborating with INRA France, CNRS, Italy, DOE Oak Ridge National labs and Michigan Tech University in developing EST databases and microarray analysis for symbiotic, plant pathogenic and plant stress related differentially expressed genes and to apply these studies for Systems Biology approach to understand functioning at organismal level.
Selected Publications
Jain P, Wadhwa P, Aygun R, Podila G.K. 2008. Vector-G: Multi-Modular SVM-Based Heterotrimeric G-Protein Prediction. In silico Biology 8, 0013.
Martin F. et. al. (2008). The genome of Laccaria bicolor provides insights into mycorrhizal symbiosis. Nature 452(7183):88-92.
Pandey, A., White, H., Podila G.K. 2007. Functional Genomic Approaches for Mycorrhizal Research. In Plant Surface Microbiology, Springer-Verlag, Germany.
Cseke, L.J., Ravinder, N., Pandey, A.K., and Podila, G.K. 2007. Identification of PTM5 protein interaction partners, a MADS-box gene involved in aspen tree vegetative development. GENE 391: 209-222.
Hiremath ST, Balasubramanian S, Zheng J, Podila G K. 2006. Symbiosis-regulated expression of an acetylCoA acetyltransferase gene in the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor. Canadian Journal of Botany 84: 1405-1416.
Gupta, P., Duplessis, S., White, H., Martin, F., Karnosky, D.F., Podila, G. K. 2005. Gene expression patterns of trembling aspen trees following long-term exposure to elevated CO2 and tropospheric O3. New Phytologist 167(1): 129-142.
Cseke LJ, Cseke SB, Ravinder N, Taylor LC, Shankar A, Sen B, Thakur R, Karnosky DF, G. K. Podila. 2005. Sep-Class Genes in Populus Tremuloides and Their Likely Role in Reproductive Survival of Poplar Trees. GENE 358: 1-16.
P. Lammers, G. A. Tuskan, S. P. DiFazio. G. K. Podila , F. Martin. 2004. Mycorrhizal symbionts of Populus to be sequenced by the United States Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute. Mycorrhiza 14:63 n 64.
G.K. Podila, L. Lanfranco. 2004. Genomics approaches to unravel mycorrhizal symbiosis. In Plant Surface Microbiology, Springer-Verlag, Germany. Pp 561-592.
S. Sundaram, Brand, J.H, Hymes, M.J, S.T. Hiremath, G.K. Podila. 2004. Isolation and Analysis of A Symbiosis-Regulated and Ras Interacting Vesicular Assembly Protein Gene from the Ectomycorrhizal Fungus Laccaria bicolor. New Phytologist 161:529-538.
Cseke, L.J., Zheng, J., Podila, G.K. 2003. Characterization of PTM5 In Aspen: A MADS-Box Gene Expressed During Woody Vascular Development. GENE 318 (2003) 55-67.
Peter M, P-E Courty, A. Kohler, C. Delaruelle, D. Martin, D. Tagu, P. Frey-Klett, S. Duplessis, M. Chalot, G.K. Podila, F. Martin. 2003. Analysis of expressed sequence tags from the ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes Laccaria bicolor and Pisolithus microcarpus. New Phytologist 159: 117-129.
