two college of arts and sciences faculty are among the eight texas a&m university faculty appointed to the rank of university distinguished professor effective september 1 2023 deborah bell-pedersen terry thomas university professor of biology and sherry j yennello regents professor of chemistry have been recognized along with perla beatriz balbuena professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering within the college of engineering (who also holds a joint appointment in the department of chemistry); roderick h dashwood professor in the department of translational medical sciences within the school of medicine; james hubbard jr professor in the j mike walker 66 department of mechanical engineering within the college of engineering; huyen pham professor within the school of law; efstratios n pistikopoulos professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering within the college of engineering; and virender k sharma professor in the department of environmental and occupational health within the school of public health who were announced monday (feb 13) as the latest recipients of the coveted title bell-pedersen a member of the department of biology since 1997 and director of the center for biological clocks research is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of circadian and fungal biology and an expert in the mechanisms underpinning the biology of cellular clocks for the past three decades her research has focused on molecular studies of the circadian biological clock in neurospora crassa a filamentous fungus that has been used as a model organism for research since the 1940s in addition to being involved in sequencing and annotating the neurospora genome she created the first dna chips containing the funguss genes that led to major insights into its biological clock such as how it generates and controls daily rhythms in protein production processes which are critical to human health and drug metabolism as a graduate student in the early 2000s i learned of deb's work on circadian rhythms and her contributions have grown over time said alex c keene professor and head of texas a&m biology deb's work elucidating how cells alter the levels of proteins between day and night has significantly impacted our understanding of several fundamental areas of biology and medicine and that impact is recognized internationally and across numerous disciplines of science being her colleague at texas a&m is a privilege and her accomplishments are worthy of this recognition yennello who joined the department of chemistry faculty in 1993 and holds the bright chair in nuclear science is an internationally renowned nuclear chemist and expert in heavy-ion reactions whose research significantly influences our understanding of the forces shaping our universe and how the elements are made in stars she has served since 2014 as director of texas a&ms world-class cyclotron institute where through her research focusing on the nuclear equation-of-state and heavy-ion reactions she has made transformational contributions to our understanding of nuclear reactions induced by radioactive nuclei along with the properties of neutron-rich matter she is a global authority in the use of isotopically selected beams to explore the dynamics and thermodynamics of nuclear collisions including one of the first-ever experiments induced by a radioactive beam and more recently to produce medically relevant isotopes professor sherry yennello is preeminent in the field of nuclear chemistry said simon w north john w bevan professor of chemistry and head of texas a&m chemistry her work has produced extraordinary game-changing new paradigms described astextbook quality she is credited with the first experiment to study the dynamics of nuclear reactions using a radioactive beam and leading to innovative and illuminating research on the role of the n/z degree of freedom on dynamics and equilibration in nuclear reactions these transformational advances could not even have been dreamed about 30 years ago and have spawned new research activity in other laboratories the 2023 university distinguished professor honorees join a select group of more than 100 current faculty members who hold the prestigious title one bestowed in perpetuity that identifies faculty members who are preeminent in their fields and have made at least one landmark contribution to their disciplines their work is considered central to any narrative of the field and widely recognized to have changed its direction of scholarship past recipients of the lifetime title participate in the selection process growing the ranks of distinguished professors by just a handful of scholars each year