Professor Michael J. Soares serves as Director of the Institute for Reproductive and Developmental Sciences (IRDS). Professor Soares received his undergraduate training at California State University, Chico where he received a B.A. degree in Psychology in 1976. In 1981, Professor Soares completed his Ph.D. degree in Reproductive Biology at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu. From 1981 to 1983, he received postdoctoral training in molecular endocrinology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Additional postdoctoral training in cell and developmental biology was obtained at Baylor College of Medicine. A National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supported Professor Soares' postdoctoral training. In 1984, Professor Soares was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He progressed through the academic ranks and in 1993 was promoted to the position of Professor of Physiology. In 2002, Professor Soares was appointed Director of the Institute of Maternal-Fetal Biology. In 2004, Professor Soares moved to the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. In 2010, Professor Soares was appointed Director of the Institute for Reproductive Health and Regenerative Medicine.

Professor Soares is internationally recognized for his novel and innovative scientific achievements in the field of developmental and regenerative biology. His laboratory is actively investigating mechanisms underlying the control of cell differentiation during hemochorial placentation.

For the past 25 years, Professor Soares' research has been continuously supported by the NIH and has resulted in the publication of 187 peer-reviewed reports, eighteen chapters in books, and three books. Professor Soares has served as a member of editorial boards and NIH advisory panels. He has been recognized for his research on trophoblast cell development by the University of Kansas School of Medicine with a Faculty Research Award in 1989, by the University of Tokyo with a Distinguished Visiting Scientist Award in 1994, by the European Placental Group with the Adriana and Luisa Castellucci Award Lecture in 1995, with a lecture at the Presidential Symposium during the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction in 1997, the University of Kansas Chancellor's Club Research Award in 2001 and Higuchi Research Achievement Award in 2004. Professor Soares was appointed as a University Distinguished Professor of the University of Kansas in 2007.

Professor Soares has also directly supervised the training of thirty-one postdoctoral fellows and ten graduate students, served as Director of an NIH-sponsored training program in Reproductive Biology (1996-2000), and as Program Director of an NIH supported BIRCWH K12 Faculty Development Program in women’s health research (2005-2010).

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