Leadership & Faculty

Program Director – Paul M. Dunman, PhD

Dr. Dunman spent 6 years at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, prior to rejoining academia in 2004.  He implemented both the Micro department’s Drug Discovery course (MBI 403) – which provides a venue in which program trainees can interact directly with research scientists from the private sector – and the Microbiology Industrial Internship Program and a Master’s program in Drug Discovery and Biomanufacturing; he also directed the URBEST Program Pathway in Industry, Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship.  His research uses Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumannii as model organisms to study bacterial pathogenesis and antimicrobial development.   

Program Co-Director – Brian Ward, PhD

Dr. Ward spent 5 years as a postdoctoral researcher at NIH, prior to joining UR, and has broad knowledge of both academic and governmental research programs .  He has served as a lecturer and Director for all of the institution’s virology-focused courses, and is currently the course Director for the Host Defense course for medical students. He received the Graduate Student Society Faculty Teaching Award in 2009. His research focuses on the molecular interactions between viruses and their hosts, with emphasis on the complex events that occur to produce infectious orthopoxviruses.