IUB Distinguished Professor Symposium

Seven Indiana University Bloomington scholars and researchers recently promoted to distinguished professor, the highest academic rank the university bestows upon faculty, give brief lectures on their work during an event to honor their achievements.

The distinguished professorship recognizes faculty who have transformed their fields of study and have earned international recognition. Faculty, alumni, professional colleagues and students nominate the field of candidates based on outstanding research, scholarship, and artistic or literary distinction. Nominations are reviewed by the University Distinguished Ranks Committee, which recommends appointments.

Christopher Beckwith is a researcher in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies in the School of Global and International Studies. A teacher at IU for 41 years, he has taught and developed 48 distinct courses and is one of the most prolific and versatile researchers in the field of Central Asian studies. He is renowned for scholarship that reshapes understanding of how, why and when the Central Eurasian steppe people from Hungary to Tibet influenced the development of knowledge, religious beliefs and societies, not only in their own areas but in the West as well.

Yves Brun, the Clyde Culbertson Professor of Biology in the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is internationally recognized for his innovative contributions to several substantial areas of microbiology, including how bacteria attach to surfaces, how they reproduce, and how their shape is determined and has evolved. His novel techniques for studying bacterial cell biology have been adopted by laboratories around the world.

Lynda F. Delph, a professor and section associate chair for the Evolution, Ecology and Behavior Program in the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is recognized as one of the top evolutionary biologists in the world. She has made an important contribution to the field through her empirical work on plants, showing that various forms of selection -- such as sexual, fecundity and viability -- operate differently on males and females, leading to sexual dimorphism in morphology, life history and physiology.

Robert L. Goldstone, the Chancellor's Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, is one of the world's premier cognitive psychology researchers. In addition to studying basic cognitive processes underlying learning, perception, decision-making and group behavior, he has applied computational models and laboratory studies to improving student learning in science and mathematics in classrooms from elementary school through college as well as online.

Randy Long, a professor of metalsmithing and jewelry design in the School of Art and Design in the College of Arts and Sciences, is an internationally recognized metalsmith with more than 300 exhibitions and 24 books that include her work. Her groundbreaking work in the 1980s with rediscovered techniques of marriage of metals pushed the limits of what was being created and placed form, sculptural considerations and concept over utility.

Robin Newhouse, who joined IU in 2015 as dean of the School of Nursing, is best known for her cutting-edge health services research and evidence-based care processes. Evidence-based translation models developed by Newhouse are used around the world to guide health system clinician decisions.

Andre Watts, the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music in the Department of Piano in the Jacobs School of Music, is recognized around the globe as a musical genius. He won a Grammy Award in 1964 for most promising new classical recording artist, and his 1976 recital on PBS' "Live from Lincoln Center" was the first full-length recital broadcast nationally in the history of television.