James Hazlett Jr., PhD, has been appointed assistant dean for basic science education at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. In this position, he is responsible for developing and directing the basic science curriculum for medical students. Basic science courses generally comprise the first two years of medical school, while the third and fourth years focus more on clinical experiences.

“Dr. Hazlett has been teaching medical students for more than three decades. In that time, he has provided outstanding learning experiences to Wayne State scientists and physicians, while earning the respect and admiration of the faculty and his peers,” said Dr. Robert Frank, associate dean for academic and student programs.

This assistant dean position is a logical next step for Dr. Hazlett, who served on the WSU School of Medicine Curriculum Committee and was instrumental in designing the present Year I and II medical curriculum. He has also served as course director for medical neuroscience and currently serves as course director for gross anatomy, two critically important comprehensive areas that are required of all medical students, and he has taught such courses as dissection, anatomy, neuropharmacology and neuroanatomy. Dr. Hazlett will retain his faculty appointment as associate professor of anatomy and cell biology at the school.

Since joining WSU as an associate professor in 1980, Dr. Hazlett has been recognized with dozens of teaching awards and was chosen Teacher of the Year three times – in 1985, 1991 and 1993. He has served on master’s and dissertation committees for more than 20 students and has directed the theses and dissertations for seven graduate students.

Former medical student (’79) and graduate student (’84), Daniel Michael, MD, PhD, recalls that Dr. Hazlett was an outstanding mentor and teacher. “Jim is always able to get more from his students than they believe possible. He demands in-depth knowledge and rigorous scientific method while demonstrating a genuine compassion for students as human beings,” said Dr. Michael.

After earning a master’s degree in anatomy from the Medical College of Georgia, Dr. Hazlett completed a doctorate in anatomy at Ohio State University in 1971. He joined the Department of Anatomy at Wayne State as an assistant professor and served for seven years. He then took a faculty appointment at Loyola University of Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine, and returned to WSU in 1980.

Having served as an ad hoc member of the National Grant Review Board for the National Science Foundation, Dr. Hazlett has also provided national and state leadership to the Society for Neurosciences. He has developed extensive course materials including a self-instruction guide and cross-sectional atlas of the lower limb.

His own research interests include neuroanatomical and neurochemical approaches to study the organization of hippocampal, somatosensory, thalamic and basal ganglia centers and their connections in adult North American opossum. With these studies as end points, he has analyzed the development of long ascending spinal connections and basal ganglia circuits in the newborn (pouch-young) opossum. He extended this work to include adult and developmental studies in a second species of marsupial opossum. He also does grant research related to visuomotor mechanisms, thalamic afferents, and regional blood-brain barrier responses to central cholinergic activity.