Richard H. Finnell, is the Margaret M. Alkek Professor of Medical Genetics and Regents Professor at the Institute of Biosciences and Technology. He is also executive director and president of the new Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine. He has a distinguished career researching environmentally induced birth defects. He earned a B.S.in biology from the University of Oregon (1975), an M.Sc. in genetics from the University of British Columbia (1978), and a Ph.D. in genetics from the University or Oregon Health Sciences Center (1980). After a postdoctoral fellowship in Switzerland, a visiting professorship in Berlin and an associate professorship at Washington State University, he was at Texas A&M University from 1991 through 1998. He served as Professor and Assistant Head, Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine; Acting Associate Dean for Research at the College of Veterinary Medicine; Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M University; Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Dentistry-Texas A&M University System, Dallas, Texas. From 1998 through May 2001 he was Director of the Center for Human Molecular Genetics and Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Finnell holds several National Institutes of Health grants. Dr. Finnell received the Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence in 1995 and the Texas A&M University Distinguished Achievement Award in Research in 1997.

Research in Dr. Finnell's laboratory focuses on the interaction between specific genes and environmental toxicants as they influence normal embryonic development. The laboratory currently has four major research areas, all of which focus on determining susceptibility to environmentally induced birth defects.