Four faculty members appointed to named professorships

Four faculty members have been appointed to prestigious named professorships designed to support continued research and scholarly activity.

The UW System Board of Regents approved the named professorships at its May meeting for the following:

• James Coors, the William A. Rothermel-Bascom Professorship in Agronomy;
• Antonio Mello, the Frank Graner Chair in Finance;
• Tim Osswald, the Kuo K. and Cindy F. Wang Professorship in Mechanical Engineering;
• and Michael Smith, the Duane H. and Dorothy M. Bluemke Professorship in Engineering.

“These are great honors and demonstrate that these professors are held in high esteem by their colleagues,” says UW–Madison Provost Peter Spear. “The named professorships allow faculty to build on their demonstrated successes in research, scholarship and teaching.”

Coors, a professor of agronomy, is a member of the Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics s program, where he teaches graduate courses in quantitative genetics and selection theory. His research focuses on the nature of genetic variation in maize. His professorship was established by William Rothermel, a UW–Madison agronomy and soil science graduate who went on to a career as an executive at Merck Chemical Corporation.

Mello, an associate professor of finance, specializes in valuation, financial policy, corporate risk management and international finance. His teaching and research draws on his extensive private sector experience, including managing director and head of corporate finance for an alliance of European banks. His chair honors the memory of Frank Maxwell Graner, a former UW–Madison business professor who made an indelible mark in the world of investment management.

Osswald, a professor of mechanical engineering, has expertise in the area of polymers and polymer processing. He is part of the Polymer Engineering Center and was instrumental in the creation of a master’s program in polymer science. His professorship was established in 2001 by Kuo and Cindy Wang and is meant to attract or retain world-class faculty in the field of manufacturing processes. Kuo Wang earned his doctorate at UW–Madison and taught at Cornell University for many years.

Smith, a professor of industrial and systems engineering, is a scholar in human factors and socio-technical systems and his work has made a major impact in education and the workplace. He has supervised 32 doctoral students and is revered as a teacher, having won the Polygon Outstanding Instructor award in his department 15 times since 1987. The professorship is awarded to a professor with demonstrated excellence in teaching. Duane Bluemke is a 1955 engineering graduate who established the endowment with his wife, Dorothy, in 2003.