UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Gary Perdew, H. Thomas and Dorothy Willits Hallowell Chair in Agricultural Sciences, has retired from the College of Agricultural Sciences after more than 30 years at Penn State.
Perdew was a faculty member in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, as well as director for the Center for Molecular Toxicology and Carcinogenesis, which is dedicated to advancing toxicology and carcinogenesis research and educational programs. He also served three times as interim department head over his career.
K. Sandeep Prabhu, head of the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, said that Perdew’s pioneering scholarship and leadership were a cornerstone of the department, advancing groundbreaking science and profoundly shaping the field of molecular toxicology.
“When the situation demanded, he stepped forward to provide timely and steady leadership as interim head, guiding the department with dedication and care,” Prabhu said. “Beyond his remarkable scientific contributions, Gary has been a trusted colleague, mentor and friend to many of us. His legacy will endure through the generations of students, trainees and colleagues he has mentored and inspired, and his lasting impact will be felt across Penn State and the broader scientific community.”
Perdew’s research focused on the fields of biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, on topics including molecular biology, pharmacology, health, toxicology and mutagenesis, cancer and immunology. He published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and obtained significant outside funding continually throughout his career.
“The aspect of my career that I am most proud of is the mentoring of postdoctoral fellows and graduate and undergraduate students that have gone on to successful and impactful careers,” Perdew said.
After earning his bachelor of science and master of science degrees, both in food science at the University of Maryland, Perdew earned his doctorate in food toxicology from Oregon State University.
Perdew’s postdoctoral experience was obtained from the University of Wisconsin at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, from which he moved to his role as an assistant professor in the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue University before eventually coming to Penn State in 1995.
Much of Perdew’s career was spent studying the Ah (aryl hydrocarbon) receptor, a protein that plays an important role in maintaining the epithelium — layers of cells that line barrier tissues such as skin, lungs and the gastrointestinal tract.
Andrew Patterson, professor of molecular toxicology and the John T. and Paige S. Smith Professor, said that Perdew's work helped expand AHR biology from toxicology into physiology, identifying endogenous, dietary and microbiome-derived ligands and showing how this receptor responds to signals from both the environment and within the body.
“Through decades of careful biochemical and molecular work, Gary and his lab helped reveal how AHR is stabilized, activated and shuttled within the cell, including foundational studies on its interaction with Hsp90 and XAP2,” he said. “These were critical discoveries that shaped the molecular framework for the field and helped set the stage for recent structural views of the ligand-bound Hsp90-XAP2-AHR complex.”
Patterson added that Perdew also mentored many undergraduates, graduate students and research faculty, and was particularly dedicated to mentoring early-career faculty.
Perdew has served on several editorial boards, including the journals Toxicology Letters, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, Molecular Pharmacology, and Toxicological Services. He held the John T. and Paige S. Smith Endowed Professorship from 2007 to 2019 and has won multiple awards, including the Penn State Faculty Scholar Award, Distinguished Alumni Award from Oregon State University, and the Penn State University Howard B. Palmer Faculty Mentoring Award.