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Dr. John C. Perez named to 2004 Hispanic Business List of 100 most influential hispanics in America

KINGSVILLE (November 3, 2004) — Dr. John C. Perez, Regents professor for Texas A&M University-Kingsville’s biology department and director of the Natural Toxins Research Center at A&M-Kingsville, was named to Hispanic Business magazine’s annual list of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America.

Perez joins a unique and varied group made up of professionals, politicians, athletes, educators, performers and clergy, among others. They include George Reyes, CFO of Google; Ken Salazar, attorney general for the state of Colorado; Edward L. Romero, director of Bank of America; and the Reverend Patrick Flores, archbishop for the San Antonio Archdiocese.

Hispanic Business magazine, the flagship publication of Hispanic Business Inc., has an ABC-audited primary circulation of 230,000 and a total audience of over one million readers. Members of the 100 Most Influential list were nominated by readers, web visitors, contributing editors and writers, magazine staff and the nominees themselves.

The list was featured in the October 2004 issue of Hispanic Business.

Perez has served as director of the Natural Toxins Research Center (NTRC) since it was established in 2000. As founding director, Perez supervises the research projects in the NTRC and develops linkage programs with other universities and institutions.

It was under Perez’s direction that the NTRC was the recipient of a $2.5 million research grant from the National Center for Research Resources, a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The mission of the center has been to provide global research, training and resources that will lead to the discovery of medically important toxins found in snake venoms. The NTRC has the largest research collection of poisonous snakes in the United States, and an Internet database of the data gathered from more than 450 poisonous snakes and their venoms.

The NTRC has also worked with undergraduate students in A&M-Kingsville’s Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program for the last six years. Students in the program work on a project alongside NTRC faculty and staff, and are expected to present their findings at national and international meetings. A number of program participants have gone on to have works published in international journals, as well as move on to advanced degree programs.

In addition to his duties as Regents professor, faculty member and NTRC director, Perez has served as director of Texas A&M-Kingsville’s NIH/Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions (RIMI) Program since 1996. He had also been director of the NIH/Minority

Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) Program at Texas A&M-Kingsville from 1973-1999. The funding from these two programs has been instrumental in furthering the venom research program, making the NTRC possible and strengthening A&M-Kingsville’s biomedical research faculty.

Publication credits include serving as a co-contributor on more than 35 published works.

Perez first worked as a research associate of bacteriology at Utah State University from 1970-1972. From there, he moved on to Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M University-Kingsville) in 1972, starting as an assistant professor of biology. In the more than 30 years that followed, Perez would become an associate biology professor in 1975 and professor of biology in 1981. He would go on to be named a Regents professor in 1999, the third A&M-Kingsville professor to ever receive the prestigious system-wide award.

This year, Perez was named the Texas Academy of Science’s 2004 Distinguished Texas Scientist, and was named Outstanding Faculty Researcher at the 5 th Annual Minority Access Incorporated National Role Model Conference.

He is also a two-time recipient of A&M-Kingsville’s Olan Kruse Science Faculty Award, the first recipient of the Undergraduate Institution Mentoring Award in 1998, sponsored by the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), and recipient of the 1979 Distinguished Research Award, presented by the Texas A&I Alumni Association.

He was nominated in 1984 for the Professor of the Year Award, sponsored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). He was also one of three professors nominated in 1979 for the Piper Award, and one of the top 10 professors selected by the Cap and Gown Honor Society at Texas A&I University in 1974.

Perez served as chair of A&M-Kingsville’s biology department from 1992-1996. He was named adjunct professor for both the College of Wildlife at Texas A&M University and the Institute of Biosciences and Technology at the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center in Houston. Perez also served as mentor to students entering Ph.D. programs.

Perez received his Ph.D. in bacteriology from Utah State University in 1972. He received his master’s in zoology at Mankato State University, a bachelor’s in molecular and genetic biology at the University of Utah and an Associate of Science degree from the College of Eastern Utah in Price.

-TAMUK-