CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Center for Advanced Study has announced nine new appointments to its permanent faculty - one of the highest honors the University of Illinois campus bestows for outstanding scholarship.
The new CAS professors are James D. Anderson, education policy, organization and leadership; Nigel Goldenfeld, physics; Stephen Long, plant biology; Tere O'Connor, dance; John Rogers, materials science and engineering; Jay Rosenstein, journalism; Klaus Schulten, physics; Jonathan Sweedler, chemistry; and Maria Todorova, history. They join 18 other CAS professors, drawn from academic departments across the campus, and will continue to serve as full members of their home departments while shaping the future of CAS by selecting associates and fellows for the center. They each receive a research fund of $5,000 per year. Their appointments are permanent, and were approved by the U. of I. Board of Trustees during its July meeting.
Anderson heads the education policy, organization and leadership department where he is a Gutgsell Professor. His teaching and research focus on the history of American education with a special interest in the history of African-American education, the history of desegregation and diversity in all levels of education, and the history of minority school achievement.
Goldenfeld is a Swanlund Professor in the physics department and leads the biocomplexity theme at the Institute for Genomic Biology. He is the director of the Institute for Universal Biology, part of the NASA Astrobiology Institute network. His research encompasses physics, microbial ecology, evolutionary biology, fluid mechanics, materials science and quantitative finance, with a unifying focus on the evolution of patterns over time, such as the growth of snowflakes, the microstructures of materials, the flow of fluids and spatial organization of ecosystems. He also is the author of a popular graduate textbook on statistical mechanics.
Long, a Gutgsell Professor in plant biology and crop sciences, studies photosynthetic efficiency, through both mathematical modeling of the molecular processes and practical investigation at the field-crop level, focusing on global change. He has identified the most productive plants and investigated the basis of their success. He has led the development of SoyFACE, a facility that analyzes the effects of atmospheric change on crops, and the Urbana-campus component of the biofuels research initiative, Energy Biosciences Institute. He now directs projects funded by the Gates Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy to improve photosynthetic efficiency in a variety of crops.
O'Connor has been choreographing contemporary dance since 1982, creating more than 35 works for his own company, Tere O'Connor Dance, as well as commissioned works for companies around the world including the Lyon Opera Ballet and solo pieces for Jean Butler and Mikhail Baryshnikov. He's known for his dance advocacy through writing, teaching, mentoring and speaking engagements, and has won numerous awards, most recently the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.
Rogers is a Swanlund Professor and is the director of the Seitz Materials Research Laboratory. He is well-known for his pioneering work on merging hard and soft materials into unusual electronic systems, with an emphasis on bio-integrated devices and bio-inspired design. Recent examples include injectable, cellular-scale optoelectronics, "insect eye" digital imagers and biodegradable circuits.
Rosenstein is a documentary filmmaker specializing in social issue stories. He has won a Peabody Award and two regional Emmy awards. His work has been broadcast on the PBS series "POV" and "Independent Lens" and on the Independent Film Channel. His films have been screened at festivals worldwide including the Sundance Film Festival. His 1997 documentary, "In Whose Honor? American Indian Mascots in Sports," helped influence the NCAA's policy against the use of American Indian mascots. His 2010 documentary, "The Lord is Not on Trial Here Today," about the First Amendment case that established the separation of church and state in public schools, was named best TV program for fostering the public's understanding of law by the American Bar Association.
Schulten, a Swanlund Professor, heads the theoretical and computational biophysics group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and he co-directs the Center for the Physics of Living Cells in the physics department. He was the first to demonstrate that parallel computers can be employed to solve the many-body problem in biomolecular modeling and the first to accomplish a simulation of an entire life form (the satellite tobacco mosaic virus). His group recently discovered the molecular structure of the HIV capsid, offering far-reaching implications for HIV pharmaceutical interventions, and his group's software for molecular graphics and modeling is used by thousands of researchers worldwide.
Sweedler, the Eiszner Family Professor of Chemistry, is the director of the School of Chemical Sciences and associated with four other scientific programs on campus. His research emphasis is on analytical neurochemistry, focusing on investigating the roles that peptide hormones, neurotransmitters and neuromodulatory agents play in behavior, learning and memory.
Todorova, the Gutgsell Professor of history, specializes in the Balkans in the modern period. Her research focuses on the symbolism of nationalism, national memory and national heroes in Bulgaria and the Balkans, as well as problems of socialism and post-communism. She is the author of more than 30 books, and has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship.
For more information about CAS professorships, contact Masumi Iriye, the deputy director of the center, at 217-333-6729 or iriye@illinois.edu.
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