UW’s Seville Receives Award for Contributions to NIH IDeA Program

A longtime University of Wyoming faculty member who led the IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) Program in Wyoming for many years has been honored nationally for his efforts.

Department of Zoology and Physiology Professor Scott Seville, a former senior associate dean of the College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources, received the prestigious 2026 W. Fred Taylor Ph.D. Award for outstanding contributions to the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) IDeA Program.

This annual award is given by the EPSCoR/IDeA Coalition and Foundation boards. It is intended to recognize an individual who has contributed significantly to enhancing the impact of the NIH Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program either regionally or nationally. The program aims to expand opportunities for students, faculty and institutions in states and territories that have had historically low levels of NIH funding for biomedical research.

Wyoming INBRE is an NIH-funded, statewide program led by UW that partners with Wyoming community colleges to foster biomedical research and education. The network boosts research, provides student fellowships and supports faculty development across the state.

“Dr. Seville is a testament to how UW impacts Wyoming across the state,” says Parag Chitnis, UW’s vice president for research and economic development. “He spent endless hours on Wyoming highways to strengthen ties with the community colleges in Wyoming in biomedical research and learning through NIH’s IDeA support.”

Seville joined the faculty at UW-Casper in 1993. He has been the chair of the UW Department of Zoology and Physiology; director of Wyoming INBRE; and associate director of the NIH-funded IDeA Mountain West CTR-IN Pilot Grant Program.

He received a B.S. in zoology from San Diego State University in 1981, along with an M.S. in parasitology (1987), a B.S. in secondary science education (1989) and a Ph.D. in zoology and physiology (1992) from UW. His research interests include taxonomy and systematics of coccidian parasites of wildlife, disease ecology and parasite-host coevolution.

“I’ve known Scott for most of my 25 years at the University of Wyoming and, like many in my state, I initially got to know Scott because my research directly benefited from his service on the long-running Wyoming INBRE grant,” says David Fay, a professor in UW’s Department of Molecular Biology and current Wyoming INBRE director. “In that sense, I can count myself among the hundreds of faculty members and thousands of student researchers who can say the same thing.

“When it comes to a lifetime-achievement award focused on service to advance the mission of the NIH and IDeA principles, it would be hard to come up with anyone more deserving.”

Seville currently serves as president of the National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators (NAIPI), a position to which he was elected, and was the NAIPI vice president from 2020-23. He also was the associate director of the IDeA Mountain West Clinical and Translational-Infrastructure Network from 2017-2023.

The W. Fred Taylor Ph.D. Award consists of a $5,000 honorarium and an engraved crystal item. Seville was recognized at the annual EPSCoR/IDeA Coalition and Foundation annual meeting Feb. 23.