I am pleased to announce the appointment of Huiping Zhou, Ph.D. to serve as interim chair in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. Zhou joined VCU in 1999 as a senior research scientist in the Department of Internal Medicine / GI Division after she completed her Ph.D. and postdoctoral training in the College of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky. She joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the MCV-VA Medical Center Lipid Research Group in 2004 as a research assistant professor. She earned a tenure-track position in 2007 with joint appointments in Microbiology and Immunology, and Internal Medicine / GI Division, and was promoted to full professor with tenure in Microbiology and Immunology in 2016 and to a GS15 research career scientist position at Richmond VA Medical Center in 2018. Since 2006, Dr. Zhou's research has been continuously funded with multiple grants from the NIH, the Department of Veteran Affairs, private foundations and industry. She has been PI or MPI on NIH and VA grants totaling over $20 million. Her research focuses on bile acids and sphingolipids in various liver diseases, including metabolic dysfunction-associated liver disease (MASLD), alcoholic liver disease, cholestatic liver disease and liver cancers. Dr. Zhou has published over 170 original manuscripts, review articles, seven book chapters and over 200 meeting abstracts. The impact of Dr. Zhou’s research on bile acids and liver diseases is reflected by her Google Scholar citation of over 26,000 with a h-index of 67. She is the current associate editor for Cell & Bioscience, Digestive and Liver Disease and Liver Research. Dr. Zhou has received many awards, including the WISDM Professional Achievement Award from the School of Medicine in 2018, the VA Research Career Scientist Award in 2018, the Distinguished Research Award from the American Physiology Society (GI / Liver section) in 2020, and the Distinguished Service Award as a president of the Chinese-American Liver Research Society in 2021. Dr. Zhou was inducted as an American Gastroenterological Association Fellow (AGAF) and American Associate of Study for Liver Disease fellow (AASLD) in 2018. I am grateful to Dr. Zhou for accepting the interim chair position and assuming leadership in this essential basic health sciences department following the recent passing of former chair Dr. Dennis Ohman. Please join me in supporting her in this new role. A search for the new permanent chair has begun and will keep our community apprised of the progress toward this key recruitment.

Sincerely,

Arturo P. Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D.