Collaboration is Key to Faculty Success

     Dr. J. Ricky Cox of the Department of Chemistry has just published a paper in Chemistry & Biology, a respected journal at the interface of chemistry and biology. Much of this research was conducted by Adam Farley, an undergraduate chemistry major working in the laboratory of Dr. Cox. This recently published work described an important intermolecular interaction in a protein involved in antibiotic resistance, a current public health crisis. This research concerning the biochemistry of antibiotic resistance was made possible through a collaborative effort between Dr. Cox and researchers at the Antimicrobial Research Centre, which is housed at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Establishing productive research collaborations is nothing new to Dr. Cox as he works with several faculty members at MSU and at Georgia Southern University.
     Dr. Cox also takes great pride in several teaching collaborations he has established in the past few years. For example, he has worked with his wife Amy Cox, chemistry teacher at Paducah Tilghman High School, to develop new ways to teach concepts related to oxidation-reduction in the chemistry curriculum. This work was published

in the August 2002 edition of the Journal of Chemical Education. Dr. Cox is also involved in a cross-disciplinary teaching collaboration with Heath Keller, an instructor in the Department of Management, Marketing and Business Administration and a CTLT staff member. This collaborative effort has been termed the Proteomics Stock Market Project and consists of three stages that involve biochemistry and management/marketing students investigating and evaluating various companies involved in proteomics research. This project was designed to give biochemistry students an appreciation for the emerging field of proteomics and the marketing/management students a flavor for real world applications of business principles. Details of this project have been presented at the CPE Conference on Innovations in Teaching and Learning: Meeting 21st Century Challenges (May 2002) and a Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (November 2002). A manuscript describing this project is currently under review at the Journal of Chemical Education.
     It is clear that Dr. Cox has taken advantage of collaborative opportunities that exist internationally and across campus. Such collaborations have enriched his research and teaching efforts and have been the key to his success at MSU.