Atchison Retires After 39 Years at MSU

January 5, 2022

From IIT Director, Dr. Norbert Kaminski:

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Dr. Bill Atchison on his retirement which began January 1, 2022. For those that did not know Bill very well let me very briefly acknowledge several of his many achievements and contributions during his 39 years of distinguished service to MSU.

Bill joined the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in 1983 and maintained an extremely active and vibrant research program in the areas of neurotoxicology and neurodegenerative disorders, which was funded by NIH continuously throughout his career. His research and scholarship resulted in over 120 peer reviewed publications. Bill also served as Director of the Neuroscience Program (1992-1998) and played a major role in establishing this program as degree granting. In addition, Bill served as CVM’s Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies for several years. Bill also devoted generously of his time and effort to promoting graduate education for underrepresented minority students.Toward this end, Bill established the postbacc program dedicated to preparing URM students for Ph.D. programs in biomedical sciences, and 10 years of developing the Bridge to the Ph.D. in Neuroscience program - the foundation for the Enhancing Neuroscience Diversity through Undergraduate Research Education Experiences (ENDURE) program. Bill capitalized upon his 15+ years of interaction with the University of Puerto Rico to develop a highly successful NIH, NINDS-funded R25-Diversity Education grant that he has directed since 2005. The grant provides research experiences for Hispanic undergraduates. More recently, he also successfully competed for a NIH NIEHS-funded R25 grant to support summer training in toxicology for undergraduate students. In addition to his research and scholarship, Bill was well recognized as an outstanding teacher, lecturer, mentor and colleague.

For his many contributions in undergraduate and graduate education, Bill was the recipient of the All University Excellence in Diversity Award in 2010, MSU Distinguished Faculty Award in 2011 and in 2014 the Society of Toxicology Undergraduate Educator Award.

Please join me in congratulating Bill on his exemplary career and in wishing him well in his much-deserved retirement.