Professor Frank Bayliss has provided more than 25 years of teaching service at San Francisco State University (SFSU). He established the campus' first genetic engineering research laboratory. Prof. Bayliss established SFSU's Student Enrichment Opportunities office in 1992 to enhance the education and research experiences of undergraduate and graduate biology and chemistry students. In 2003, Prof. Bayliss received the Andreoli Biotechnology Service Award from the California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology. The award honors outstanding contributions to the development of biotechnology in California.
Professor Frank Bayliss' outstanding mentoring efforts over the past two decades have contributed significantly to making San Francisco State University a national strength in the training and education of students from groups underrepresented in science who subsequently pursue and earn the Ph.D. Furthermore his mentoring efforts have become a model for the diversification of science faculties. Through his Student Enrichment Opportunities (SEO) Programs Prof. Bayliss has provided exceptional opportunities for minority student career development.
Through SEO, Professor Bayliss has established an interlocking system of talent development and support that spans the freshman-to-Ph.D. student continuum, emphasizing the important transitions: high school to freshman; community college to SFSU undergraduate; BS to SFSU masters; and SFSU BS or MS to Ph.D. The SEO enterprise supports student achievement and growth throughout the student's undergraduate and masters academic careers. The combined effect of the SEO student enrichment programs has resulted in significantly higher retention and academic achievement of underrepresented undergraduate, post-baccalaureate and masters-degree students in the department of Biology and the department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. All of these programs are focused on increasing the number of minority science students ready to succeed in Ph.D. programs and become participants in the nation?s research enterprise. In the past three years, 64 of Professor Frank Bayliss' minority students have won admission to Ph.D. programs at top research universities nationwide. His SEO research training programs are poised to place 20-30 underrepresented minority students per year into Ph.D. programs for the foreseeable future. In the past three years 19 of his former students have completed Ph.D. degrees. An additional 20 are expected to complete the Ph.D. in 2008, and 102 are on track to earn the Ph.D. within the next five years. This exceptionally high level of success is particularly noteworthy within the context that for many decades few SFSU minority students applied to or entered Ph.D. programs. His mentoring efforts with faculty have resulted in the hiring and career success of American Indian, Hispanic, African American, and Pacific Islander faculty members in the departments of Chemistry & Biochemistry, and Biology.
