Robert Elde

Dr. Elde was named dean of the University of Minnesota’s College of Biological Sciences in 1995.
He joined the University faculty in 1977 and is now the J.
B.
Johnston Land Grant Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Neuroscience.
As dean of the College of Biological Sciences, Dr. Elde has partnered with the University’s Medical School and the College of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences to consolidate biology education and research at the University into discipline-based departments that reflect the leading forces of contemporary biology.
These consolidations have been the basis for recruiting outstanding new faculty.
He has proposed a privately funded biotechnology research park near the University campus to promote molecular and cellular biology-based research and development by the University in partnership with industry.
In addition, he has worked with the University’s law school to establish the joint J.D./Ph.D.
program “Law, Health and the Life Sciences” and other new degree programs.
Under Elde, the College of Biological Sciences has witnessed a significant increase in the number and caliber of students.
A 1969 honors graduate of North Park College in Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology and chemistry, he received his Ph.D.
in anatomy from the University of Minnesota in 1974.
Dr. Elde received an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1996.