Contact: Kay Fike Jones
Two interim heads are now permanently leading their respective departments in the College of Arts and Sciences at Mississippi State University.
Edmond A. Emplaincourt took over leadership of the department of foreign languages July 1, while Philip B. Oldham assumed the top post in the chemistry department Aug. 1.
Emplaincourt, who served as interim department head for one year, joined the MSU faculty in 1975. He earned a bachelor's degree in French from the College of William & Mary in Virginia and master's and doctoral degrees, also in French, from the University of Alabama.
In addition to writing for numerous publications, Emplaincourt has written one book and is working on another about the French Crusades.
The Belgium native and U.S. Army veteran received the Outstanding Honors Faculty Award from the University Honors Program in 1995 and was nominated for an MSU Alumni Association Graduate Teaching Award, as well as a Burlington Teaching Award.
Oldham joined the Mississippi State faculty in 1986 as an assistant professor. He began serving as interim department head in 1996. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., and a doctorate in analytical chemistry from Texas A&M University.
The author of numerous scholarly articles, Oldham (along with other chemistry faculty members) also has a patent pending for "Fluorescence Biosensor with Electrochemical Control."
Among his honors are awards from Alpha Chi honor society and Phi Lambda Upsilon, a Robert A. Welch Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship and a summer research appointment to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Oldham also was named Outstanding Faculty Member for the MSU chemistry department in 1988, along with Who's Who Among American Colleges and Universities and Who's Who in the South and Southwest.
Both appointments are subject to state College Board approval.