Colorado State University Names New Honors Director

Note to Reporters: A photo of Don Mykles is available with the news release at http://www.news.colostate.edu.

Don Mykles, CSU professor and former associate dean in Natural Sciences, has been named the new director of the University Honors Program at Colorado State University. He begins the position July 1.

The director is the chief administrative officer of a program that has more than 1,400 students participating each semester in Honors courses and activities. The director reports to the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs and is responsible for the program’s curricula and instruction; students, student recruitment and admission to the program; budget, faculty and staff; and the residential learning community. The director also works with University Advancement and participates in university orientation and advising.

Mykles steps in for Bob Keller, who served as director of the Honors Program for the last 13 years. Reflecting on this transition from Keller to Mykles, Alan Lamborn, vice provost for Undergraduate Affairs, said, “I am particularly happy that we have a person with Don’s experience, educational insight and professionalism to succeed Bob Keller. Bob has not only served as director longer than anyone other than Willard Eddy, who founded the program in 1957, he has been instrumental in guiding the program through a series of important curricular innovations and growing the program to historically unprecedented levels.

“In all these ways, Bob has set the standard for leadership at a very high level. In Don Mykles, we have found a person who has the ability to be a worthy successor.”

Mykles, who joined the CSU community in 1985, is a faculty member in biology as well as the Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Neurosciences Program and the Cell and Molecular Biology Program. He also serves as a scholar in the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, or SoGES. He has served as interim chair and assistant chair in the Department of Biology and associate dean in the College of Natural Sciences.

He has received awards for his research and undergraduate mentoring, including the National Science Foundation Young Investigator, Fulbright Scholar at University of Heidelberg, Distinguished Research Fellow at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, Outstanding Honors Academic Advisor, and the College of Natural Science Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research Award.

Mykles studies the hormonal control of growth and limb regeneration in crabs and lobsters, which has application for crustacean aquaculture, the management of fisheries and understanding the effects of environmental pollution and climate change.
Mykles received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Prior to teaching at CSU, he was a postdoctoral fellow in biochemistry at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

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