Dr. Melanie Mormile, professor of biological sciences at Missouri S&T, will become associate dean for research and external relations in Missouri S&T’s College of Arts, Sciences, and Business (CASB) effective July 1, 2019. She has served in this role as an interim since July 1, 2018.

Mormile will facilitate major research initiatives and proposals; oversee responsible research conduct and safety; manage comprehensive external relations programs that engage donors, faculty, students and other key stakeholders; and work as a member of the college administrative leadership team on issues related to college governance and administration.

“I have the utmost confidence in Dr. Mormile to guide the research and creative activities in the College of Arts, Sciences, and Business,” says Dr. Stephen Roberts, vice provost and dean of CASB. “Dr. Mormile’s own prolific research, combined with her experience guiding faculty in her earlier role as associate provost for faculty affairs, give her the right background to direct and build the research arm of the college.”

Mormile, an environmental microbiologist, has brought in over $5 million to S&T in externally funded research. She holds three patents on the industrial use of certain extremophilic organisms (organisms that survive in extreme environments).

Mormile joined the S&T faculty in 1999 and has received numerous faculty excellence awards. Prior to joining the CASB leadership team as interim associate dean, she served as associate provost of faculty affairs and special assistant to the provost. Mormile was named Missouri S&T’s Woman of the Year in 2008. She is faculty advisor for Helix, an undergraduate organization sponsored by the American Society of Microbiology, and serves as the main faculty advisor for the Mars Rover design team, a position she has held since the team’s inception in 2012.

Additionally, Mormile is editor-in-chief and a writer for SIMB News, a quarterly news magazine of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, and she serves as counselor for the Missouri Branch of the American Society for Microbiology.

“I’m very happy to be provided the opportunity to work closely with the exceptional faculty of CASB to help advance the college’s research and creative activity,” says Mormile.