BMB Department celebrates employee Years of Service

The Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department hosted its annual Years of Service reception this past Friday, 4/26/19.  The event recognizes the many years employees have given to both the university and the department.  This year the department was fortunate to recognize 22 of its employees with 13 celebrating 5 years, 1 celebrating 10 years, 6 celebrating 15 years, 1 celebrating 20 years and 1 celebrating 25 years at Penn State University.  The Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department is extremely blessed to have these individuals, along with the many others within the department, to work alongside in the execution of its goals.  The department recognizes the following individuals for their service

25 Years

Vykuntha “Reddy” Padala

Dr. Padala was originally hired on January 1, 1994 as a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Veterinary Science.  He worked writing NIH grants and conducting basic research in the areas of Lipid peroxidation, Phospholipases, Signal Transduction and Antioxidant enzymes such as Glutathione Peroxidases and Glutathione Transferases until his departure from the department in July of 2001.

“After spending 7 years there, I decided to switch to a teaching position” stated Padala.  It was Robert Schlegel, department head of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the time, that brought Padala to the department.  Padala was hired as an instructor, was promoted to Lecturer in 2004, then Senior Lecturer I in 2009, Senior Lecturer II in 2016 and finally Teaching Professor in 2018.  During this time Padala has taught the following BMB courses: 212, 401, 411, 437, 442, 444 and 443W.

When asked what advice he would give to new faculty just staring their careers here at Penn State, he remarked “My advice to the young faculty in their early careers is to work with passion, conviction, and dedication. You also should like what you are doing.”

20 Years

Song Tan

15 Years

Gretta Kellog

Istvan Albert

Arthur Lesk

Anton Nekrutenko

Katsuhiko Murakami

Elena Yakhnina

10 Years

John Gajewski

5 Years

Ben Allen

Scott Lindner

Chris Bowen

Manuel Llinás

Andrew Cecere

Lindsey Orchard

Martin Cech

Heather Painter Ponton

John Chilton

Gaozhong Shen

Heather Giebink

Stephanie Valente

William Lai