Stephen F. Austin State University

Stephen F. Austin State University will host the 26th annual J.H. Burr, Jr. Distinguished Lecture in Biology at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 17, in the Miller Science Building, Room 137. Dr. Clifford W. Houston will present “Strengthening Science and Technology Education from the Bottom Up.”

Houston is the associate vice president for educational outreach and holds the Herman Barnett Distinguished Endowed Professorship in microbiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. He is the former deputy associate administrator for education in the Office of Education at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

He received his bachelor’s degree in microbiology and chemistry from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, as well as a master’s in biology. He received his doctorate in microbiology and immunology from Oklahoma Health Science Center in Oklahoma City.

Houston currently serves as chair of the steering and planning committee for the annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students. He has served as president of the American Society for Microbiology and is chair of its education board.

The recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2000, Houston was selected to the International Who's Who Professional Program in 1996. He was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology in 1997 and was selected for a Burroughs-Wellcome/ASM visiting professorship in 1999. He recently was appointed to the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences Advisory Council.

This lecture is free and open to the public. 

For more information, contact the SFA biology department at (936) 468-3601.