About Dr. Jason Locklin

2020 Temple Health & Bioscience District Candidate

Former President, Texas Academy of Science |Managing Editor, Texas Journal of Science | Department Chair & Professor of Biology, Temple College |Co-founder, Temple College Biological Research Institute

In February 2020, I filed to run for a board position on the Temple Health & Bioscience District. I am excited about the opportunity to serve the community and to bring some science to the Health & Bioscience District board. As a trained scientist that values decision-making through a scientific and data-driven lens, I think my perspective and approach will help to improve the District's mission of growing twenty-first century jobs by fostering bioscience education, research, and healthcare in Central Texas.

A Little About Me

I grew up in Temple and attended K-12 in TISD (playing Wildcat baseball and football in the early 1990s). After attending Temple College for 2 years to get my basic core courses completed, I completed my B.S. and M.S. degrees in aquatic biology at Texas State University and Ph.D. in biology from Baylor University. While attending Texas State, I met my wife, Anna, who is currently a nurse practitioner at Baylor Scott & White.

I am currently a professor of biology and department chair at Temple College where I teach first-year general biology courses, human anatomy & physiology, and biological research methods. I also serve as the Managing Editor of The Texas Journal of Science, the research journal of the Texas Academy of Science.

One of my proudest professional accomplishments as an educator was establishing a research program in Temple for our community college students! This program was recently formalized as the Temple College Biological Research Institute and allows our students to work with professors to develop research ideas, perform the field/lab experiments, and formally present/publish their research results. I have mentored dozens of our local students in various research programs - some of which are now medical doctors, attending medical schools, or working on other scientific degrees at our Texas universities and colleges. My students have had their studies published in scientific journals, presented at international, national, and regional scientific conferences, and received research grant money to complete their research studies at Temple College. This is a pretty rare thing for students at a community college and I'm so proud to be a part of their successes!