Vice president for research resigns after CDC investigation

By: Calli Turner

Posted: 8/2/07

&Texas A&M's vice president for research resigned Wednesday, while the University is still awaiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on the researchers exposed to bioagents.

Richard Ewing, who headed a federally funded program to conduct biodefense research, said in a letter to his colleagues that he is leaving the post "during a time the university is under tremendous scrutiny surrounding its select agent research program."

Ewing's resignation comes in the wake of two CDC investigations, an indefinite ban on select agent research and A&M's elimination to host the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.

Officials with the CDC arrived on campus in April to investigate a student researcher exposed to brucella - A CDC-listed bioterrorism agent - while cleaning a lab cage.

CDC officials were back on campus in June investigating three researchers exposed to Q fever, another CDC-listed bioterrorism agent.

Ewing will return to the Department of Mathematics to resume his post of tenured professor.

Interim President Eddie J. Davis said no personnel changes were to be made until after the investigation is complete.

;We're not going to make any personnel actions or modifications until we get the review," Davis said.

- The Associated Press contributed to this report