Iraqi's tie to MU (University of Missour) jars former associates/ MU grad is believed to be a top biological weapons scientist/Staff and wire reports Professors and students reacted with shock Saturday to the possibility that MU graduate Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash is one of Iraq's top biological weapons scientists. Ammash, who was seen on television Thursday meeting with Iraqi officials, including Saddam Hussein, received a doctoral degree in microbiology from MU in December 1983. U.S. intelligence officials identified Ammash and said she is believed to have played a key role in rebuilding Baghdad's biological weapons capability since the first Gulf War. Olen Brown, a retired MU professor who supervised Ammash's doctoral dissertation, said he was disturbed by the reports. "You are always pleased when your students progress and are appointed to a professorship or make some committee or council, but the difference in this case is obvious," Brown told The Associated Press. "I had no basis for thinking she wasn't as normal and moral and altruistic and dedicated as many of my students, and I am extremely distressed." Georghe Constantinescu, a professor of veterinary anatomy and a naturalized citizen originally from Romania, came to MU the year after Ammash graduated. The College of Veterinary Medicine was part of an arrangement by which degrees in the area of microbiology were granted at the time. "When she was here in '83, no one expected things like Sept. 11 or other criminal acts they commit," Constantinescu said Saturday. "No one expected this kind of development that we witness today." Matt Mahn, a third-year veterinary student, said he was frightened to hear that an MU alumna could be helping Saddam create biological weapons. "With him using them against his own people and other countries, with his record of terrorist activities, it is definitely disturbing," Mahn said. Ammash, 49, spent four years at MU in pursuit of her doctoral degree in microbiology. Her 183-page dissertation focused on how oxygen, which is used by cells in the production of energy and other processes, affected certain cancer drugs, Brown said. MU police records show that on April 2, 1983, Ammash was arrested for disrupting a pro-Iranian's speech during an event at Allen Auditorium marking Ayatollah Khomeini's fifth year in power. The event took place during the Iran-Iraq War. Ammash was charged in Columbia Municipal Court with disturbing the peace. The disposition of the charge was not immediately clear; city officials said they could not locate any open records from the 20-year-old matter. Before coming to MU, Ammash received a master of science degree in microbiology from Texas Woman's University, a state school in Denton, Texas, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Baghdad. She served as dean of the College of Science at Baghdad University from 1995 to 1997 after serving as an instructor and professor. In 2001, she was elected by secret ballot to the Baath Party's executive committee, called the Iraqi Regional Command. Missourian reporter Andrew Mouzin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.