Interim Vice President for Health Sciences 

Fred R. Butcher, Ph.D.

(304) 293-1536 

---

Fred R. Butcher, Ph.D., is vice president for health sciences at West Virginia University. During his two decades on the faculty at WVU, Butcher has been a teacher, a researcher, and an administrator.
Butcher earned a bachelors degree in microbiology and a doctoral degree in biochemistry from The Ohio State University and is recognized as a leading international expert in how hormone neurotransmitters control cell function. He joined WVU in 1978 as a professor of biochemistry and within two years was named department chair and eventually associate dean for research and graduate studies. Butcher served as the founding director of the WVU Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center from 1988 until 2001. Under his leadership, the Cancer Center became the state’s premier cancer treatment and research facility and was established as a national leader in outreach efforts aimed at cancer education, prevention and early detection.
In 1993, while serving as Cancer Center director, Butcher was appointed senior associate vice president for health sciences, the position he held until recently being named WVU’s vice president for health sciences. He also served as interim executive director of the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute during its founding period. Butcher has served on the editorial boards of two journals, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta and the Journal of Cyclic Nucleotide Research; served on and chaired research committees of the National Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and served as principal investigator on a number of NIH and National Cancer Institute research projects, including the Appalachian Leadership Initiative on Cancer.