Bristol Who’s Who Recognizes Michael H. Fox
Michael H. Fox, Ph.D., has been a Professor at Colorado State University for over 35 years and is currently Emeritus Professor. He has had a remarkable career with a compendium of achievements. He was the chairman of the Graduate Program in Cell and Molecular Biology at CSU from 1990-2005. He was a visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute in Goettingen, Germany, in 1989-90. He has published 62 scientific papers, 5 book chapters and a book (“Why We Need Nuclear Power: The Environmental Case,” Oxford University Press 2014). He loves to travel with his wife and is fluent in English and Spanish.
After graduating from McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas, in 1968, with a degree in Physics, Mike joined the Peace Corps in La Paz, Bolivia from 1968 to 1970. His primary job was teaching physics in Spanish at the Universidad Mayor de San Andres. He also played trombone in the Bolivian National Symphony and accompanied Dobbs Hartshorne, a string bass player from Julliard, on the piano in formal concerts in La Paz. He traveled extensively in South America and developed a love for travel, cultures and language.
After the Peace Corps, Mike began graduate studies in physics at Kansas State University. He received his MS degree in 1972 and took a year off to teach physics as an Assistant Professor at McPherson College. He returned to KSU to finish his PhD degree in physics/biophysics in 1977. He began a postdoctoral fellowship at Colorado State University in the Department of Radiation Biology in 1977 where he learned to grow mammalian cells and built a flow cytometer to begin studies of the cell cycle. He became Assistant Professor in 1979 and studied the response of cells to radiation and hyperthermia to improve cancer therapy. He published numerous papers on the cell cycle, and the effects of intracellular ions and membrane fluidity on the response of mammalian cells to heat. He also did collaborative studies on tumor cell kinetics in dog tumors to optimize therapy. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1988 and Full Professor in 1995.
Dr. Fox has been actively involved in the Radiation Research Society and the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC). He served on the council of ISAC from 1985-89, as well as on numerous committees of the Society. He also served on numerous grant review committees for the National Institutes of Health and reviewed scientific publications for over fifteen scientific journals.
He was invited to lead a delegation of scientists to China in 1985, just after the end of the Cultural Revolution. The scientists discussed scientific advances with Chinese colleagues in universities in Shanghai, Yangchou, Wuxi, Nanjing and Beijing, as well as learned about the rapid cultural changes occurring in China at that time.
Dr. Fox was invited to the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen, Germany, in 1989, where he spent a year working with Dr. Donna Arndt-Jovin. His studies focused on the patterns of DNA replication through the cell cycle in individual cells, using confocal fluorescence microscopy. The work resulted in a major publication in the Journal of Cell Science with the cover photo (Fox MH, Arndt-Jovin DJ, Jovin TM, Baumann PH, Robert-Nicoud M: Spatial and temporal distribution of DNA replication sites localized by immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy in mouse fibroblasts. J Cell Science 99:247-253, 1991.)
After this, Dr. Fox became chairman of the Interdisciplinary Cell and Molecular Biology Program at Colorado State University in 1990 and developed it into the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Degree Program in 1995. He served as chairman for 15 years and established it as one of the premiere graduate programs at the university.
Love of teaching has always been a driving force in his career. He taught Introduction to Radiation Biology for more than twenty years to juniors and seniors at Colorado State University. He also taught a number of graduate courses on Radiation Biology, Advanced Cell Biology, Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting, and Hyperthermia. Recognized for his hard work, he was chosen by the Environmental Health Student Association as the Outstanding Professor in 2010. Dr. Fox mentored eleven PhD students and seven MS students.
As a consultant for Cytomation, Inc., Dr. Fox worked with scientists in animal reproductive biology at Colorado State University to demonstrate the feasibility of using high speed cell sorting to purify sexed sperm from bulls. The technology led to the development of a new company specializing in sexing sperm, X-Y Inc.
Dr. Fox also developed a flow-cytometry based mutagenesis assay that could rapidly determine the genotoxicity of physical and chemical compounds in mammalian cells. He founded Cytomation GTX, Inc., to market the technology through the NIH Small Business Innovation Research Grant program and demonstrated its accuracy and sensitivity. However, the company did not become commercially successful.
After retiring from full-time research and teaching at Colorado State University, Dr. Fox began working on a book to shed light on the need for nuclear power to reduce carbon dioxide production and mitigate global warming. His book, Why We Need Nuclear Power: The Environmental Case, was published in 2014 by Oxford University Press. He continues to be interested in energy issues and gives talks in various venues promoting the need for nuclear power.
Although he resides in Fort Collins Colorado, Michael loves to travel with his wife of 40 years, Mary Ann Ryser. Together, they have two kids and three grandkids.
Bristol Who’s Who Member Michael H. Fox, PhD can be found on the Who’s Who Directory where he is looking forward to networking with you.
