-= NMSU PANORAMA - Summer 2005 =- Around Aggieland: Faculty Named to Endowed Positions, Regents Professorships

Home Page

President's Message

A Passion for Education

Visions of the Soul

Helping Students Make Smart Choices

Hollywood on the Rio Grande

Around Aggieland

This department contains multiple stories. Please make a selection:
› NMSU Launches Fourth Microfilm Project in Mexico
› HRTM Department Upgraded to a School
› Faculty Named to Endowed Positions, Regents Professorships
› NMSU Opens Office in Chihuahua
› New Orientation Program Debuts
› Horseshoe Tales - Reviving a Lost Art

Faculty Named to Endowed Positions, Regents Professorships

Five NMSU faculty members were selected to fill endowed positions this spring and another five faculty members joined the ranks of Regents Professors.

Thomas Schmugge was appointed to the Gerald W. Thomas Chair in Food Production and Natural Resources, which honors President Emeritus Gerald Thomas. Schmugge spent 15 years with NASA and 17 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Hydrology Lab. His expertise includes using satellite data to estimate snowmelt, measure soil moisture and to determine water losses from evaporation and transpiration in plants.

Barry Smith, who has been a faculty member in the Finance Department since 1986, was appointed to the Mountain States Insurance Group Endowed Chair for the Study of Insurance and Financial Services, which was established in 2003 by Albuquerque-based Mountain States Insurance Group. Smith has lectured on various insurance topics in 32 states, and has authored three books and numerous articles on insurance and risk management.

Betsy Cahill of Curriculum and Instruction was named the first recipient of the J. Paul Taylor Professorship, which was established in honor of J. Paul Taylor, a retired state representative who received three degrees from NMSU. Taylor has been a lifelong advocate for K-12 education, most notably early childhood and bilingual education.

Cahill co-authored Gov. Bill Richardson's Early Learning Plan, which was announced at NMSU last October.

Nirmala Khandan of Civil Engineering was named the first holder of the John Clark Endowed Professorship, which is named for John W. Clark, professor of civil engineering from 1953 to 1978. Khandan has published more than 50 journal papers and a book, Modeling Tools for Environmental Engineers and Scientists. Three of his papers are among the top 1 percent of all papers published in engineering worldwide in terms of peer citation.

Kevin B. Boberg, associate dean of business, was named to the Garrey E. and Katherine T. Carruthers Chair in Economic Development in the College of Business. This chair was created last year by Dean Carruthers and his wife (see Panorama, Winter 2004). In addition to serving as associate dean of business, Boberg is director of the Arrowhead Center at NMSU, which was created to commercialize new technologies and stimulate economic growth in the state, and director of the college's Bureau of Business Research and Services.

Joining the ranks of Regents Professors this spring were Herman S. Garcia, Curriculum and Instruction; Glenn D. Kuehn, Chemistry and Biochemistry; G. Larry Mays, Criminal Justice; Bernard McNamara, Astronomy; and Kenneth R. White, Civil Engineering. Mary Teresa Brandon, NMSU-Doña Ana, was named a Regents Professorship Master Teacher.

Regents Professorships, which were established by the NMSU Board of Regents in 2001, recognize faculty members who have made outstanding contributions to the university's mission and honor contributions in the areas of education, research, extension education and public service.

NMSU now has 25 faculty members who hold the title of Regents Professor.

^ Return to top ^