Dr. Joe Bidwell Chair
Dr. Joe Bidwell named chair of Biological Sciences
JOHNSON CITY (Jan. 24, 2014) – Dr. Joe Bidwell is the new chair of the Department of Biological Sciences in East Tennessee State University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Bidwell comes to ETSU from the University of Newcastle, Australia, where he was professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Science and Management. He was previously an associate professor of zoology, interim department head and director of the Ecotoxicology and Water Quality Research Laboratory at Oklahoma State University.
Bidwell’s teaching and research interests are in the area of aquatic biology with an emphasis on how organisms deal with environmental stress. He has received funding for his research from governmental sources and private industries, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. departments of Agriculture and Energy, Oklahoma Water Resources Research Institute and National Parks of Australia.
Bidwell grew up exploring the countryside surrounding his family’s dairy farm near South Worcester, N.Y., a town of 200 people about 60 miles west of Albany. In 1985, he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Siena College, Loudonville, N.Y., and went to graduate school at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, where he earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in zoology.
ETSU’s Department of Biological Sciences currently has 20 faculty members specializing in a wide range of scientific disciplines, including cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, ecology, evolution, developmental biology, neurobiology and behavior. Research in the department is supported by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Tennessee Higher Education Commission and other state and federal sources.
Students in the department study a wide variety of courses that prepare them for medical, dental, veterinary and pharmacy school, as well as careers in biological/biomedical research and field biology.