Seven faculty earn named professorships

Seven University of Nebraska–Lincoln professors have been awarded professorships from the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor. They will be recognized at a luncheon planned for the fall.

Three faculty members were named Willa Cather/Charles Bessey Professors. The professorship was established in 2001 to recognize faculty members with the rank of full professor who have established exceptional records of distinguished scholarship or creative activity.

Marco Abel, Willa Cather Professor of English, is renowned for his influential work in German film studies. A recent fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, he has authored two books and more than 70 articles, interviews and reviews on various aspects of German film history, international cinema and 20th-century American literature. He has also co-edited three special journal issues and dossiers, is the co-editor of the Provocations book series, and co-directs the university’s Humanities on the Edge series, which since 2010 has brought more than 40 nationally and internationally recognized theorists to campus. In 2019, he received the James A. Lake Prize for Academic Freedom.

Brian Harbourne, Willa Cather Professor of mathematics, is an internationally recognized researcher in the area of algebraic geometry. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles during his career, which have appeared in top journals and been cited more than 1,000 times. Harbourne has given more than 60 invited conference and colloquium talks over the past decade and been instrumental in organizing high-profile conferences and workshops. He has also secured significant external funding over his career, including several National Security Agency grants and a five-year collaboration grant from the Simons Foundation.

Eileen Hebets, Charles Bessey Professor of biological sciences, is an international leader in the study of complex signals and animal behavior. She has given more than 30 invited talks, including the opening plenary address at the triennial International Congress of Arachnology in 2019. Her foundational paper on how to study the function of multimodal signals has set the stage for research activity in the field, been cited nearly 700 times and produced more than 100 peer-reviewed papers. Her research is supported by two National Science Foundation grants totaling $1.14 million. Her pioneering organization of the SciComm Conference has greatly increased the visibility of the university.

Three faculty members were named Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professors. The professorship recognizes faculty at the associate professor level who have achieved distinguished records of scholarship or creative activity and who show exceptional promise for future excellence.

Eric Dodds, Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of chemistry, focuses his research and creative activities on the conception and implementation of mass spectrometry-based strategies for the analysis of biomolecules. He has published 55 peer-reviewed journal articles, which have been cited 1,200 times. His work is supported by a prestigious National Institutes of Health Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award, with a total funding of more than $1.9 million, and he has been the recipient of additional grants totaling more than $6.1 million. He serves as director of the Nebraska Center for Mass Spectrometry and is a founding investigator of the Nebraska Center for Integrated Biomolecular Communication.

Jeffrey Stevens, Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of psychology, integrates cognitive and evolutionary perspectives to study decision-making in humans and animals. He has published more than 70 articles in top experimental psychology and biology journals, has more than 75 conference and invited presentations, and has supervised almost 70 undergraduate research assistants, many of whom have gone on to receive numerous awards. He is adept at building collaborative research teams from a wide variety of disciplines, including co-writing a National Science Foundation grant with a University of Nebraska-Lincoln computer scientist. His outreach activities have brought more than 1,000 members of the public to campus to learn about research at the university.

Stacey Waite, Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor of English, has made important contributions to the fields of queer studies, composition pedagogy and feminist rhetoric. She is the author of “Teaching Queer and Butch Geography” and co-editor of “Ways of Reading,” a leading textbook in her field. She has also published more than 30 poems in creative writing journals and anthologies, along with 12 peer-reviewed articles in journals and books. Top venues featuring her work include College Composition and Communication, the field’s flagship journal; Peitho, a prominent journal of feminist rhetorical studies; and Writing on the Edge, an interdisciplinary journal in writing studies.

One faculty member was named a George Holmes Professor. The professorship recognizes faculty members who have shown an extraordinary level of scholarly or creative achievement and clear potential for continuing accomplishments.

Daniel P. Schachtman, George Holmes Professor of agronomy and horticulture, is internationally renowned for his research in plant mineral transport, nutrient signaling, abiotic stress tolerance and crop root-soil microbiome interactions. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and has been cited more than 15,000 times. He currently manages more than $15 million in extramural grants, the most notable being a $14.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. He also serves as director of the Nebraska Center for Biotechnology, which provides research core facility services to the NU scientific community and external academic and industrial scientists.