TOM HUBER
Mercer Biology
B.S., Biology, Westminster College, New Wilmington, PA
M.S., Agronomy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Ph.D., Agronomy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Charles F. Kettering Research Laboratory, Yellow Springs, OH
Degrees and Advanced Study
Dr Tom Huber, Professor
Joined Mercer 1984
office WSC 215
phone 478.301.2714
fax 478.301.2067
email huber_ta@mercer.edu
BIO 211 Introductory Biology I
BIO 212 Introductory Biology II
BIO 302 Plant Biology
BIO 465 Biochemistry I
SCI 105 Scientific Inquiry
GBK 101 Great Books I: Among Gods and Heroes
GBK 202 Great Books II: Classical Cultures
GBK 407 Great Books VII: The Age of Ambivalence
Courses Taught
Biochemistry, Plant Physiology, and Enzymology; Great Books
Specialties
Dr. Huber was professionally trained as a plant physiologist and biochemist. His Ph.D. dissertation was a study of asparagine biosynthesis in soybean (Glycine max) root nodules and included the purification and characterization of the enzyme asparagine synthetase. His postdoctoral work concerned the characterization of extracellular polysaccharides in various Rhizobium and Bradyrhizobium species. As an increasingly senior member of the College of Liberal Arts, his efforts have become more administrative and interdisciplinary in focus. After nine years of chairing the Biology Department, Dr. Huber was happy to turn his attention to the Great Books Program, for which he now serves as Director. The Great Books Program is a unique offering that allows students from all majors to fulfill a significant portion of the College’s General Education requirement by reading and discussing original and seminal texts in the Western Tradition. This has become a passion of his, and he has spent a great deal of time developing ways to incorporate original texts into various portions of the College’s curriculum.
Research Interests
Huber TA. (2005) What is a good Great Books discussion? The Great Books Program, Mercer University, Macon, GA.
Huber TA. (2002) What We Thought We Were Doing the Last Time We Revised General Education. Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, Atlanta, GA.
Huber TA. (1996) Accessing Science: Mendel in a Sequence of Core Science Papers. Second Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, Philadelphia, PA.
Huber TA. (1996) Sisyphus was no myth: The mass of the rock. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Atlanta, GA.
Huber TA. (1995) Trials in the Oresteia: The flames of Troy in the hearths of Argos. The Great Books Review, Mercer University, Macon, GA.
Huber TA, Streeter JG. (1985) Purification and properties of asparagine synthetase from soybean root nodules. Plant Science 42: 9-17.
Huber TA, Agarwal AK, Keister DL. (1984) Extracellular polysaccharide composition, ex planta nitrogenase activity, and DNA homology in Rhizobium japonicum. Journal of Bacteriology 158: 1168-1171.
Huber TA, Streeter JG. (1984) Asparagine biosynthesis in soybean nodules. Plant Physiology 74: 605-610.
Huber TA, McDonald, Jr MB. (1982) Gibberellic acid influence on aged and unaged barley seed germination and vigor. Agronomy Journal 74: 386-389.
Publications
