Creighton University’s Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean of School of Medicine, Cam Enarson, M.D, has announced two appointments. Richard Goering, Ph.D. will become chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology on April 3, 2006 and Thomas F. Murray, Ph.D., will become professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology effective August 1 of this year.

Goering has been a faculty member since 1975. His research efforts have centered on the use of molecular approaches to the epidemiological analysis of problem pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus. He was the first in the United States to champion the use of pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) in this process - now the “gold standard” approach to the epidemiological surveillance of problem organisms. Goering serves on the editorial board of the European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and is a member of numerous U.S. and European-based associations and study groups related to those issues. He received his Master’s degree from Wichita State University and his Ph.D. from Iowa State University.

Murray comes to Creighton from the University of Georgia, where he was a research professor and head of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology of the College of Veterinary Medicine. Murray was trained as a molecular pharmacologist at the Department of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine of the University of Washington. Prior to his position at the University of Georgia, Dr. Murray served for 14 years on the faculty of the College of Pharmacy at Oregon State University. Active in research, he has published in more than 120 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of signal transduction, neurotoxicology and glutamate receptor pharmacology.