Outstanding Career Achievement Research and Creative Accomplishments Award
David Butler, Ph.D.
Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, CHPS
If MSU Billings were to create a pre-professional program for future med school or med research applicants, Dr. David Butler would be its spokesmodel.
Now in his 30th year of teaching and doing research at MSU Billings, Dr. Butler has mentored more than 60 undergraduate students who have received invaluable research experience in his laboratory.
鈥淢any of these have proceeded to earn doctorates from prestigious programs such as the University of Texas, University of Iowa, and University of Wisconsin,鈥� a nominator wrote. 鈥淚n addition, many of his undergraduate researchers have been accepted into medical schools around the country due in part to the research experience provided by David.鈥�
For several years, Dr. Butler has served in the role of primary academic advisor for the MSU Billings Medical Laboratory Science program. Part of that role is helping students prepare for and obtain their clinical training placements. And for the past five years, he has been the Director of the Clinical Testing Lab at Student Health Services. The lab was started to do surveillance testing of athletes for COVID during the pandemic. Since then, the lab has transitioned to offering PCR-based COVID and FluA/B testing for any student. In that role, the lab tests about 100 students per year.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Butler has focused on antifungal small molecule work that has resulted in multiple publications and three awarded patents. Current research is using a yeast model system to better understand protein mutations related to ALS.
The connection to students and seeing their success remains a highlight, he said.
鈥淚 love teaching,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 get a lot of short-term positive feedback from students who like the hands-on experience. That鈥檚 really meaningful to a lot of them.鈥�