Willie Bans, Managing Editor

What did Stanley Maloy, Ph.D., want to be when he grew up?

“A lawyer at one period of time,” Maloy said. “An actor at one period. I wanted to own a restaurant. A chef.”

Definitely not a microbiologist or a professor.

But that’s what Maloy, dean of the College of Sciences, is today.

Maloy, who from July 2004 to June 2005 served as president of the American Society for Microbiology, said he wouldn’t have it any other way. His lab, his classroom, his colleagues, his department – they’re what make him love exiting Interstate 8 toward College Avenue to work almost every morning.

And his career happened by chance.

Maloy attended UC Irvine for his undergraduate studies to become a bioanalyst. In his last quarter of his senior year, he took a microbiology class.

“And I said, ‘This is what I have to do,'” the 53-year-old recounted in his office on the sixth floor of the Geology, Mathematics and Computer Sciences building. “Taking that class changed my life.”

Since then, Maloy’s been trying to make his work affect other people’s lives.

The San Diego native said he has been collaborating with biology professors Roger Sabbadini, Ph.D., and Kathlene McGuire, Ph.D., to develop vaccines for various diseases, including traveler’s diarrhea caused by the bacteria Salmonella, which kills many children in poor countries.

Maloy’s goal is that travelers would pay considerably more for the vaccine, allowing children in developing countries to have the vaccine at a more affordable cost, he said.

Maloy disagrees with the California State University’s supposed focus away from research and emphasis on teaching. He believes in a balance. He’ll boast, brag and beg other schools to challenge SDSU’s facilities and faculty.

“The idea that SDSU has some kind of different level of research compared to a (UC system institution) is total nonsense,” he said. “We have a large number of scientists that have a phenomenal reputation internationally for their research.”

If Maloy comes off as proud, that’s because he is. If you think he’s cocky, he’s got a mix of that with just as much modesty. And if you wonder that with his qualifications and accomplishments, he’d ever want to leave Montezuma Mesa for another place, think again. When he left the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2003, he came here because he liked it. He’s just as happy today.

“There are places that you go, and this is true of a number of Ivy League schools, where a phenomenal number of students have had it pretty easy,” Maloy said. “They’ve gone through and get to where they are, and sure, they’re smart, and sure, they’re good, but it’s very different. When I was a student in college, I worked my whole way through college, paid my way. It was really hard. I worked my rear off.

“There are a lot of people here at SDSU who are just like that. They’re students who are first generation going to college. Some of them are students that have to work through college and really want to get ahead, some of them are students who, for them, this is really going to be an opportunity. I really appreciate that.”