Dr. Robert Wondergem

Years of Service: 1978-

Dr. Rob Wondergem was born in Wisconsin and earned his Bachelors degree at Calvin College, Michigan in 1972. He moved to the Medical College of Wisconsin for his PhD degree with Dr. Howard Klitgaard, and completed post doctoral work with Professor Van Potter at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Physiology at East Tennessee State University in 1978, and served as Interim Chair of the Department from 1987-89.

Dr. Wondergem has a long standing passion for research in electrophysiology and membrane ion channel function. He employs elegant methods such as whole cell voltage clamping and single channel voltage clamping to elucidate electrical events contributing to cell volume regulation, cell division, and cell migration. The research program has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Kroc Foundation. In 2002/3, he was honored as a Fulbright Research Fellow and Visiting Professor in the College of Medicine at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium. Dr. Wondergem is an active member of Sigma XI, the American Physiological Society, the American Society for Cell Biology, the Society for General Physiologists, and serves on the Editorial Board for the American Journal of Physiology.

Dr. Wondergem has been a strong graduate educator at East Tennessee State University, training 8 students who successfully completed PhD or Masters degrees. In his leisure time, Dr. Wondergem is an avid tennis player and enjoys jogging regularly.