Dr. Tim Raabe will be joining the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UT Health San Antonio as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.

“I am eager and excited to take on the role of Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in GSBS and I look forward to working with everyone to continue to improve the graduate education and programs at UT Health San Antonio,” he said.

Tim is originally from Brookings, South Dakota and after surviving 19 years of winters he decided to move from one environmental extreme to the other and ended up in San Marcos, Texas at Southwest Texas State University (now known as Texas State University). In addition to earning two degrees (B.S. & M.S. in Biology), he also met Linda, his wife of 27 years, there.

While attending SWT, Tim participated in the SURF program at UT Health San Antonio in the summer of 1988 and this opportunity altered his career path.

Afterwards, Tim joined the laboratory of George Bittner at UT-Austin for his graduate studies where he studied the long-term survival of severed axons in the goldfish Mauthner axon and earned his Ph.D. in 1995.

After obtaining his doctorate, Tim joined the laboratory of Dr. George H. DeVries at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago and began investigating the role of neuregulins in the development and maintenance of both the peripheral and central nervous systems.

In particular, he focused on the ability of both oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells to synthesize and release their own neuregulins, which may enable these cells to regulate their own survival, differentiation or proliferation.

After exposing his wife (a Native San Antonian) to two winter seasons in Chicago, she was ready to return to Texas and start their family.  Being the good husband, Tim immediately obtained a faculty position at St. Mary’s University in 1997 and their first daughter Patty was born prior to their return to Texas.  Their second daughter Caroline was born in 2000.

At St. Mary’s, Tim was very successful at obtaining external funding to continue his research on neuregulins and to promote undergraduate research at the university.  Tim became the Program Director for the MARC program at St. Mary’s in 2005 and has successfully renewed the funding for three cycles.

He considers the successes of the students from the MARC program as one of his most notable achievements at St. Mary’s.   He was named Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences in 2009, and was also the first Benjamin F. Biaggini Endowed Chair of Biological Sciences. He was appointed the first Associate Dean of the School of Science, Engineering and Technology in 2014.

The St. Mary’s University Alumni Association recognized him with the Gateway Million+ Club Award in 2015.  Tim was also recognized with the President’s Award for Excellence in 2016.

We look forward to welcoming Tim to GSBS!

Photo credit: St. Mary’s University