Mark Sheridan has been named interim associate dean of NDSU’s College of Graduate and Interdisciplinary Studies.
Sheridan will be responsible for providing leadership for the College of Graduate and Interdisciplinary Studies in identifying and securing funding for graduate students, research programs and other support services for graduate students and faculty; leading the college’s curriculum committee; and serving on the University Academic Affairs Committee. In addition to his new position, Sheridan will continue his faculty role as a James A. Meier and Jordan A. Engberg Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and director of the cellular and molecular biology program at NDSU.
Sheridan previously served as director of the Regulatory Biosciences Cluster at NDSU from 1991 to 2000 and director of the North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research from 2000 to 2003.
Sheridan’s laboratory conducts research on the regulation of growth, development and metabolism of animals. He has received more than $26 million in grants for direct research support and research infrastructure enhancement from several funding agencies, including National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has published three books, six book chapters, 126 peer-reviewed journal articles and holds one patent.
Sheridan has received several awards for his teaching and research, including the NDSU Faculty Lectureship, and was a fellow of both the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Programa de Intercãmbio Internacional em Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação, Brazil.
Sheridan has been a visiting professor at more than 12 universities around the world, including institutions in Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan, Sweden and Taiwan. He is active in several professional organizations and is chair of the Division of Comparative Endocrinology for the Society of Comparative and Integrative Biology and a member of the executive committees for the International Federation of Societies for Comparative Endocrinology and the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology. He also serves as an editor or associate editor for four scientific journals: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Frontiers in Endocrinology, General and Comparative Endocrinology and International Journal of Endocrinology.
A native of California, Sheridan earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology and master’s degree in biology from Humboldt State University, Arcata, Calif., and his doctorate in zoology from the University of California-Berkeley. He did postdoctoral research at the University of Washington, and joined the faculty at NDSU as an assistant professor in 1985.
Sheridan lives in Fargo.