Five Sciences Faculty Honored with Professorships

Five faculty members in the College of Sciences at NC State have been honored by the university with professorships of distinction that recognize outstanding scholarly work.

The honorees include Dr. Jacqueline Krim, who was named Distinguished University Professor of Physics. She was recognized for her status as a top physics scholar and for improving NC State through her service and involvement in the campus community. Krim is also associate dean for research in the College of Sciences.

Four other faculty members — Drs. Harald Ade, Ruoying He, Soumendra Lahiri and Ralph C. Smith — were named Distinguished Professors.  Each was honored for achieving recognition well above the criteria for a full professor and for achieving status as some of the finest scholars in their fields.

More information about the winners:

• Krim’s research interests include solid-film growth processes and topologies at submicron length scales; nanotribology, and liquid-film wetting phenomena. Her research accomplishments include the first experimental documentation of phononic mechanisms for sliding friction and the discovery of superconductivity-dependent friction. She joined the NC State faculty in 1998.

• Ade was named Distinguished Professor of Physics. He has received international attention for his interdisciplinary work understanding the physics of organic solar cells and light emitting diodes, creating novel devices, and inventing and using new characterization methods with an emphasis on applications to organic devices. He joined the NC State faculty in 1992.

• Designation as Distinguished Professor of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences was awarded to He. His work is recognized around the world for its contributions to physical oceanography; coastal and estuarine circulation dynamics; numerical modeling and data assimilation; bio-physical interactions; and coastal ocean observing systems. He joined the NC State faculty in 2007.

• Lahiri was named Distinguished Professor of Statistics. He has achieved international recognition for his work in resampling and computer intensive methods; financial statistics and econometrics; spatial and environmental statistics; asymptotic expansions; and statistical inference for high-dimensional and massive data sets. He joined the NC State faculty in 2012.

• Designation as Distinguished Professor of Mathematics was awarded to Smith. His work in modeling and control of smart material systems is considered among the best in the world. The research has included the development of an influential unified theory that describes hysteresis in ferroic materials. He joined the NC State faculty in 1998.