University of Minnesota

Distinguished McKnight University Professors for 2009

The University of Minnesota is pleased to announce the new recipients of the Distinguished McKnight University Professorship.  The purpose of the Professorship is to recognize and reward our most outstanding mid-career faculty.  Recipients are honored with the title Distinguished McKnight University Professor, which they hold for as long as they remain at the University of Minnesota.  The grant associated with the Professorship consists of $100,000 to be expended over five years.

The recipients were chosen based on the following criteria:  the level of distinction and prestige that their scholarly work brings to the University; the merit of their achievements and the potential for greater attainment in the field; the dimension of their national or international reputation, including leadership efforts in interdisciplinary or collaborative initiatives; the extent to which their career has flourished at Minnesota and their work and reputation are identified with Minnesota; the quality of their teaching and advising; and their contributions to the wider community.  Profiles of the new recipients follow, along with a list of prior winners.

Bin He

Biomedical Engineering

Harnessing Brainpower with Neuroimaging

Professor He is an internationally renowned leader in functional biomedical imaging and neuroengineering. His influential studies of a family of imaging and interfacing methods have significantly enhanced the ability to construct images of human brain activity and create powerful interfaces between the brain and computers. Applications of this brain-computer interface research range from video games to moving artificial limbs with only the mind. He is the author of about 300 peer-reviewed articles in leading scientific journals and conference proceedings. His many awards include the American Heart Association’s Established Investigator Award and the NSF CAREER Award. He is a Fellow of IEEE—the world’s leading professional organization for the advancement of technology—and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Joseph A. Konstan

Computer Science and Engineering

Changing Human Behavior through Online Communities

Professor Konstan is a world leader in human-computer interaction, bridging the fields of computing and social science. He is internationally respected for his work on recommender systems—computing systems that use the opinions of a community to help each community member avoid an overload of digital choices. His work extends broadly into online communities—the study of how the design of online spaces can shape behaviors—and into online public health, exploring how computing can be used to prevent diseases from HIV to obesity and to promote healthy choices. Konstan has been selected as a Distinguished Visitor by the IEEE and as a Distinguished Lecturer, Distinguished Scientist, and Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Marla Spivak

Entomology

Honeybees and Global Human Health

Professor Spivak is a world authority on honeybees, their behavior, and their services to humankind. As pollinators of one-third of all crops, bees are critical to environmental and human health. Spivak fuses basic and applied research, producing insights into basic biology while making significant differences for beekeepers. Spivak bred a widely used honeybee line resistant to disease through hygienic behavior. She is currently uncovering the antimicrobial benefits of propolis, a resin, to bees and humans. Spivak is past-president of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects’ North American Section, a trustee of the Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees, and a member of the board of directors of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. She received the University of Minnesota McKnight Land-Grant Professor award in 1996 and a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant in 1997.  She has had continuous research funding from NSF since 1997.

Li-Na Wei

Pharmacology

Vitamin A and Gene Regulation

Professor Wei is a leading scientist in vitamin A signaling and mechanisms for regulating genes. Vitamin A is essential to body functions from gene transcription and embryonic development to healthy vision and skin. Wei first proposed an innovative theory of a hormone-dependent suppressive mechanism that is essential to controlling many biological processes. She pioneered studies of transcription regulator proteomics, a central theme in recent studies of regulatory molecules. In the chromatin remodeling process, she first demonstrated a mediator-requiring chromatin looping. In neurobiology, she proposed the concept and established the phenomenon of an RNA transport-based mechanism that regulates pre-synaptic activities in neurons, a potential drug target in many neurological diseases.

DISTINGUISHED MCKNIGHT UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS NAMED IN PREVIOUS YEARS

David Andow, Entomology — Ecological and evolutionary principles in environmental sciences

Lydia Artymiw, Music — Piano performance

Gary J. Balas, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics — Control theory

George Barany, Chemistry — Peptide synthesis

Frank S. Bates, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science — Synthesized molecular polymer structures

Judith Berman, Genetics, Cell Biology & Development — Model and pathogenic yeasts

David Bernlohr, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics — Lipid metabolism

John C. Bischof, Mechanical Engineering — Biomaterial cryopreservation and thermal therapies

Graham V. Candler, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics — Computational hypersonic fluid dynamics

Bernardo Cockburn, Mathematics — Computational mathematics

Bianca M. Conti-Fine, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics — Molecular immunology

Christopher J. Cramer, Chemistry — Computational chemistry

Nicki R. Crick, Child Development — Aggression and gender in children’s mental health and development

Jeffrey J. Derby, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science — Computational models of crystal growth

R. Lawrence Edwards, Geology & Geophysics — Climate change in the earth’s recent past

Ann M. Fallon, Entomology — Insect molecular biology

Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, Civil Engineering — Hydrologic science

John Freeman, Political Science — Economic growth and redistribution of wealth

Megan Gunnar, Child Development — Stress hormones and human development

Patricia Hampl, English — Writings of fiction, memoirs, essays, and poetry

Wei-Shou Hu, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science — Cell culture engineering

William G. Iacono, Psychology — Biological markers for schizophrenia

Richard D. James, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics — Mechanical behavior of solid phase matter

Marc K. Jenkins, Microbiology — Immunology

Timothy J. Kehoe, Economics — General economic equilibrium analysis

Uwe R. Kortshagen, Mechanical Engineering — Plasma research

Gordon E. Legge, Psychology — Psychology of vision, perception, and reading

Timothy P. Lodge, Chemistry — Experimental physical chemistry/polymer science

Ann S. Masten, Child Development — Resilience in children at risk

Claudia Neuhauser, Ecology, Evolution & Behavior — Research at the interface of mathematics and biology

Eric A. Newman, Neuroscience — Functions of glial cells in the brain

Keith A. Olive, Physics & Astronomy — Cosmological astrophysics and the nature of the universe

S. Douglas Olson, Classical & Near Eastern Studies — Ancient Greek literature

Craig Packer, Ecology, Evolution & Behavior — Behavior of African lions

Nikos P. Papanikolopoulos, Computer Science & Engineering — Robotics and automation

Keshab K. Parhi, Electrical & Computer Engineering — Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) design

David Y. H. Pui, Mechanical Engineering — Aerosol science

Anne Pusey, Ecology, Evolution & Behavior — Primate field studies

Peter B. Reich, Forest Resources — Forest and grassland ecology

Victor Reiner, Mathematics — Algebraic combinatorics

Jeffrey T. Roberts, Chemistry — Chemistry at complex interfaces

Steven Ruggles, History — Historical family demography

C. Ford Runge, Applied Economics — Agricultural policy analysis and the economics of trade

Michael J. Sadowsky, Soil, Water & Climate — Environmental microbiology

Sachin S. Sapatnekar, Electrical & Computer Engineering — Computer-aided design of integrated circuits

Guillermo Sapiro, Electrical & Computer Engineering — Image processing and computer vision

Shashi Shekhar, Computer Science & Engineering — Computational structure of large spatial databases

J. Ilja Siepmann, Chemistry — Molecular simulation of complex chemical systems and processes

Kathryn A. Sikkink, Political Science — International relations and comparative politics

Andreas Stein, Chemistry — Synthesis of porous materials and nanostructures

Vladimír Sverák, Mathematics — Pure and applied mathematics

G. David Tilman, Ecology, Evolution & Behavior — Biodiversity and the well-being of ecosystems

William B. Tolman, Chemistry — Bioinorganic chemistry

Robert T. Tranquillo, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science — Biomedical engineering

Christopher Uggen, Sociology — The effect of life course transitions on crime and deviance

Lawrence P. Wackett, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics — Biocatalysis and biodegradation

Eric Weitz, History — German history

Nevin Dale Young, Plant Pathology — Legume genetics and genomics/bioinformatics

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