Lawrence B. Schook, Edward William and Jane Marr Gutsgell Professor of Animal Sciences and Radiology, previously served as the Vice President for Research at the University of Illinois, overseeing the technology commercialization and economic development activities across the University’s three campuses (Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, Springfield). Previously he served as founding Director, UIUC Division of Biomedical Sciences and the founding IGB Theme Leader for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering. Schook is a recognized international scholar in comparative genomics and is known for leading the pig genome-sequencing project, which has provided researchers insights into human cancer and other chronic diseases. He is a noted entrepreneur who has launched three medical application startup companies.
As Vice President for Research for the University of Illinois he provided a unified voice for the research enterprise ($1B) at the university level, across all three campuses, including overseeing the enterprise-wide system of technology and economic development, facilitating collaborative research opportunities, streamlining related policies and procedures, and helping communicate the university’s research vision to internal and external constituencies. Schook is a Professor of Animal Sciences, Bioengineering, Pathobiology, Nutritional Sciences, Pathology and Surgery. He also is a Professor in the Institute for Genomic Biology and holds Affiliate Faculty appointments at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory. He held an Affiliate Scientist position at the Carle Foundation Hospital and was Co-Chair of the Carle Biomedical Research Center Steering Committee. He formerly served as Director of the Division of Biomedical Sciences and Theme Leader for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering at the Institute for Genomic Biology. While at the University of Minnesota, he was Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Co-Chaired the Provost’s Research Design Team for the Academic Health Center. In addition, he was the founding director of the Food Animal Biotechnology Center and the Advanced Genomic Analysis Center (campus genome center).
He attended Albion College and received his M.S. and Ph.D. from Wayne State School of Medicine. After postdoctoral training at the Institute for Clinical Immunology in Switzerland and the University of Michigan he has held faculty positions at the Medical College of Virginia, University of Minnesota and a visiting Professor at the Ludwig Cancer Center of the University of Lausanne. A recipient of NIH, Swiss National Fund and Pardee Fellowships, he was named a UIUC University Scholar, received the Funk Award for Meritorious Achievements in Agriculture, the H. H. Mitchell Award for Graduate Teaching and Research, the Pfizer Animal Health Research Award, and is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was appointed a Fellow at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications and the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership. He is also the recipient of a Fulbright Distinguished Chair Fellowship (Human Genetics and Genomics) at the University of Salzburg and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Albion College. He serves on the National Academy of Sciences’ Council for the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) and is co-Editor-in-Chief of the ILAR Journal.
Schook has served as an advisor to corporations, universities, non-governmental and governmental agencies with respect to medical models, genomics and animal biotechnology. He has or is serving on the Governor’s Illinois Innovation Council, the Albion College Board of Trustees, the Board of Governors for the Argonne National Laboratory, the Board of the Directors for the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and the Council of the National Academy of Sciences’ Council for the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research and is co-Editor-in-Chief of the ILAR Journal. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Illinois Biotechnology Organization and the Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference Foundation and the BIO Governing Board on Food and Agriculture. Professor Schook chaired the Executive Steering Committee of the Alliance for Animal Genome Research and Project Director for the International Swine Genome Sequencing Consortium and the International Pig SNP Chip consortium.
His scholarly activities include over 240 manuscripts, 300 abstracts, and 9 edited books/works and he is the founding editor of Animal Biotechnology. He has given over 200 seminars and presentations to international congresses and universities around the world. In addition to serving as the major advisor to 38 M.S. and Ph.D. students he has mentored 35 postdoctoral fellows/scholars and 43 undergraduate students. As Principle Investigator, he has received over $68 M ($25 million as PI) in sponsored research from governmental and industrial sources.
