Research opens doors to great possibilities

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Chettle_David01.jpg” caption=”David Chettle Photo credit: Deborah McIvor”]David Chettle, a member of McMaster's Faculty of Science for over 15 years, will be taking on new responsibilities beginning July 1, 2006 in his new appointment as associate dean, Research and External Relations in the Faculty of Science.

As associate dean, Chettle will have overall responsibility for supporting and guiding faculty research activities and aligning them with strategic priorities within the Faculty and University. He will also play a major role in promoting liaison between graduate, undergraduate and research programs to ensure coherence between education and research in the Faculty, and in developing partnerships with the private and public sectors that will enhance McMaster's research capacity. Chettle will represent and advocate for the Faculty on various national and international bodies and funding agencies. His strong personal record of research, scholarship, leadership, vision, and administrative experience will serve him well in this position.

“This newly created position comes at an opportune time for the Faculty of Science as we move to advance and expand the research mission of the Faculty, and seize new opportunities to build on existing and emerging areas of strength,” says Dean John Capone.

Capone looks forward to working with Chettle in his new role. “David is an accomplished and productive researcher and educator and has been instrumental in leading the development of strategic initiatives in the Faculty of Science. His broad experience, his vision, and his commitment to collaboration and partnerships will help guide us in strengthening and enhancing our research program.”

“I have a lot of passion for doing research – personal and as director of the McMaster Institute for Applied Radiation Sciences,” says Chettle. “The role at the Institute is to facilitate collaborations: to create a platform from which my colleagues may build their research and develop partnerships that will help define McMaster as 'best' in particular areas. And that is, to quite a large extent, what I see carrying on with this new position.”

Chettle did his undergraduate and graduate training and research fellowship at the University of Birmingham, UK prior to accepting a full-time position as associate professor in the Department of Physics at McMaster in 1991. Currently a professor in the Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences and director of the McMaster Institute for Applied Radiation Sciences (McIARS), Chettle is also coordinator for the Mohawk/McMaster Medical Radiation Sciences program. His research focuses on the role and impact of lead, cadmium and aluminum in the body.

“It's not so much that I bring a vision to the position but that I want to listen. I want to listen to faculty, staff and students to recognize the vision that is already there in the desires and aims of potential and ongoing projects coming out of the Faculty,” says Chettle.

Chettle also has his eye set on developing new funding streams and building partnerships around the globe between McMaster researchers, industry and governments. He would like to build a sense of 'open doors' here at McMaster, for inter-institutional collaboration to allow for beneficial growth and discovery for students and faculty.

“The engine for the research has to be the faculty – with their ideas, their visions, their dreams – that is where the energy is going to come from. That, in turn, is going to involve graduate students and the opportunity for faculty to assist them in questing for their own discoveries, which is a wonderful part of being involved in a research-intensive educational institution.”

Another goal of the new associate dean is to see the continued development of summer research positions to allow undergraduate students to see whether they have a passion for this type of career. “There has to be an interface where undergraduate students also really get a taste of what research is all about,” he asserts.

Chettle clearly enjoys interaction with students as much as he does conducting research and creating research partnerships. “I've spent most of my time over the last few years developing a new program, Medical Radiation Sciences,” says Chettle. “And there's a real pleasure seeing students come in to the University and watching their lives open up to great possibilities.”