2022 Appointees: Endowed & Named Positions

College of Engineering Dean's Professor

"My research focuses on developing robots, AI and the ability for humans to interact with these systems that will be deployed in very difficult environments, such as a wildland fire response or post-earthquake disaster response. Achieving the development of such technologies has the potential to save lives and property."

Patricia Valian Reser Director of Arts and Education

"Art lives in experience. In our era, it’s easy to become attached to small parcels of information: a tweet, a Wikipedia entry, a simple idea, a stateable result. Art gives us something more, because it pushes us to experiences we cannot always understand, name or distill."

Sara Hart Kimball Dean of the College of Business

"One of my favorite things about our work at the university is that we are in the business of unleashing human potential. It’s a privilege to help our students and alumni build the lives, make the contributions and have the impact they want."

Toomey Faculty Fellow

“I love to tackle the larger problems in society using perspectives and methodologies that have yet to be applied. Recently, I have worked on assessing and managing air pollution in China and understanding how fake news and its fact checking are spread on social media. I hope my work helps policymakers and field experts make more informed decisions that lead our world to a better place.”

Delpha and Donald Campbell Dean of Libraries

"While the sheer amount of information that we have access to today is astonishing, the information landscape that we have to navigate is constantly getting more complex. Finding and destroying the barriers our users have to navigate to get the information they need to succeed – however they define success – is what energizes me. "

Callahan Faculty Scholar in Chemical Engineering

"My research focuses on developing new catalysts and reaction engineering concepts capable of converting the waste from our society, like waste plastics, into valuable commodity chemicals. I believe technology can be used to valorize certain waste streams, providing a free-market approach to collect and not disperse our waste across the globe."

John and Jean Loosley Faculty Fellow

"My research focuses on fire and earthquake impacts to buildings and communities. Working collaboratively with partners in forestry, urban planning, public policy and sociology allows me to understand the full extent of the problem and see how we can all solve this together rather than only solving a portion of the problem separately."

Robert C. Wilson Faculty Scholar

"My research focuses on safety and risk, and primarily how to design civil infrastructure (e.g., buildings, bridges, roadways, dams, etc.) so that it can be built safely. Keeping workers safe is a continual challenge given the intense daily demand on the infrastructure and the significant repairs that are needed."

Nesbitt Faculty Scholar in Energy Engineering

"I love working with students and sharing the knowledge I’ve gained over my decades-long engineering/industry/academic career. It makes me very proud to watch my former student researchers succeed after graduation."

Excellence in Microbiology Faculty Scholar

"Exploring with my students new ways to study long-standing questions with important environmental impacts is invigorating! Every day we get to be detectives, investigating how cells work in different environments and how they collectively impact oceans, lakes and the atmosphere."

Toomey Faculty Fellow

"I love that the topics we study and teach are relevant to everyday people. People spend so much of their lives engaged in work, and the work we do can create true benefits for individuals and organizations."

Eric H.I. and Janice Hoffman Professor in Civil and Construction Engineering

"I enjoy meeting one-on-one or in small groups with students, whether they are from a class I am teaching or involved in the research work we are doing. Seeing their progression throughout their time at OSU, especially as they build engineering critical thinking skills, gives me the biggest smile and sense of a job well done."

Harley and Brigitte Smith Fellow in Business

"Financial regulation is crucially important yet deceptively difficult to design because even thoughtfully crafted regulation will have unintended side effects. My hope is that my work helps inform regulators so they can craft policies that will allow everyone to prosper through fair and equitable financial markets."

William C. Hoffman Professor in Animal and Rangeland Sciences

"Meat science is the intersection between animal science and food science, and it is what connects producers with consumers. The strides in understanding meat quality, nutrition and food safety over the course of my career are so vast but most gratifying is to see those discoveries actually applied to either livestock production or meat processing."

Welty Faculty Fellow

"I am energized by meeting with students and collaborators, coming up with new, multi-disciplinary research problems to tackle together. Being able to pivot and study new problems is one of my favorite things about my job."

Kearney Faculty Scholar

"In the 21st century, computational thinking should be included as a basic skill for literacy. However, many universities, states and countries lack programs to prepare future and current K-12 teachers for incorporating computational thinking into their classrooms. This creates inequities and problems for introductory computer science courses in high school and higher education."

Culbertson Faculty Scholar

"Nowadays, we live around 90% of our time in buildings, which often have a negative impact on our health or well-being, and are responsible for a fair share of our energy consumption. Through my work on (day)lighting, I aim to contribute to the development of a more sustainable and healthy built environment."

Whiteley Faculty Scholar

"My students are not only future health care providers, but also future (or present) parents and voting members of our society. In my classes, I hope that my students find the space and confidence to be their authentic selves, while also learning how to create that same opportunity for everyone they meet in the future."

Barbara Emily Knudson Chair in Family Policy

"I envision a future where all families have access to supports like quality and affordable child care and paid time off from work to care for family. Evidence shows that these supports have long term economic, social, and health benefits and would reduce social inequality."

Culbertson Faculty Scholar

"The vision of the Sustainable, Healthy and Resilient Buildings Lab is that if we want to have impactful climate action, we should focus on buildings: the largest energy-consuming sector in the U.S. And if we want to help improve the health of all peoples, everywhere, and from all communities, we should focus on where they live and work: buildings."

College of Engineering Dean's Professor

"My research involves the bioremediation of soil and groundwater contaminants. Many of the microbial processes that I have investigated are now being implemented to clean up contaminated sites. Graduate students I have mentored work for the environmental consulting industry, governmental regulatory agencies or have faculty positions. Seeing their careers flourish has been the most rewarding part of my work."

College of Science Faculty Scholar

"Working with students on a diverse set of research projects feeds my soul. I love how we end up learning about new things together, in a real collaborative way. My goal is to improve science literacy through equity-based, data-driven, decision making in the classroom. I want to bring science into the teaching of science."

Cairns K. Smith Faculty Scholar

"Though rarely recognized in American popular culture or even academic research, my work makes clear that Latina/os have long been a fundamental part of America. This includes Oregon, which has a history of Spanish colonial exploration, 19th century vaqueros (Mexican cowboys) and now depends on Latina/o labor from its coastal communities to its high desert."