UIUC Center for Advanced Study appoints seven new professors

Permanent appointment nominations are submitted by deans, directors, department heads, and current CAS professors, focusing on the campus’s most productive faculty members.

By Craig Ondevilla December 18, 2024 3:14 pm

Chambana TodayCanvaProPermanent appointment nominations are submitted by deans, directors, department heads, and current CAS professors, focusing on the campus’s most productive faculty members.

CHAMPAIGN, IL (Chambana Today) – The Center for Advanced Study (CAS) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) recently appointed seven new members.

CAS professors are selected based on their exceptional academic achievements and receiving this is one of the highest honors the university can bestow. CAS professors deliver the annual lecture and serve on the committee that selects CAS associates and fellows. Permanent appointment nominations are submitted by deans, directors, department heads, and current CAS professors, focusing on the campus’s most productive faculty members. The seven newly appointed professors are:

Lisa Ainsworth (Plant Biology): Charles Adlai Ewing Chair of Crop Physiology. She directs the Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment facility, focusing on crop responses to climate change. Ainsworth is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scott Denmark (Chemistry): Reynold C. Fuson Professor in Chemistry. His research includes the invention of new synthetic reactions and chemoinformatics. Denmark is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jodi Flaws (Comparative Biosciences): Researches environmental chemicals’ effects on female reproductive systems. She has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers and is a fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences.
Peter Fritzsche (History): W.D. and Sara E. Trowbridge Professor of History. His research focuses on 20th-century Germany and cultural history. Fritzsche has received international recognition, including a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Bill Gropp (Computing and Data Science): Director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and a professor in the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science. Gropp is a fellow of AAAS and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Helen Neville (Educational Psychology): Researches racial beliefs and healing from trauma. She is the president-elect of the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race and has received numerous awards for her research and mentoring.
Brent Roberts (Psychology): Gutsgell Endowed Professor of Psychology. His research focuses on personality traits across adulthood. Roberts has received multiple awards and served as the director of the Center for Social and Behavioral Science.