Seven Promoted to Rank of Distinguished Professor

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Office of the Provost announces the pro­mo­tion of seven to the rank of Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor. To be con­sid­ered for pro­mo­tion to Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor, fac­ulty must demon­strate out­stand­ing achieve­ments and be nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally renowned as schol­ars. This is the high­est fac­ulty title the Uni­ver­sity bestows and is used only for the most promi­nent fac­ulty members.

UNM’s new Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sors are: David Brook­shire, Depart­ment of Eco­nom­ics; Mar­i­anne Berwick, Depart­ment of Inter­nal Med­i­cine; Jane Lan­caster, Depart­ment of Anthro­pol­ogy; Eric Loker, Depart­ment of Biol­ogy; David Schade, Depart­ment of Inter­nal Med­i­cine; Howard Yonas, Depart­ment of Neu­ro­surgery; and Vic­tor Stras­burger, Depart­ment of Pediatrics.

David Brook­shire, who earned his Ph.D. from UNM in 1976, is the first eco­nom­ics pro­fes­sor to be pro­moted to Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor. He is direc­tor of the UNM Sci­ence Impact Lab­o­ra­tory for Pol­icy and Eco­nom­ics. Brook­shire spe­cial­izes in envi­ron­men­tal and resource eco­nom­ics. He has served as Pol­icy Sci­ences Edi­tor of Water Resources Research, served on the exec­u­tive board of the Sus­tain­abil­ity of semi-Arid Hydro­logic and Ripar­ian Areas Sci­ence and Tech­nol­ogy Cen­ter at the Uni­ver­sity of Ari­zona, served on three National Research pan­els and worked as an econ­o­mist for the National Water Com­mis­sion, the U.S. Depart­ment of Com­merce and the U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Survey.

Brook­shire spe­cial­izes in pub­lic pol­icy issues in the nat­ural resource, envi­ron­men­tal and nat­ural haz­ards areas. His nom­i­na­tor wrote, “When David com­pleted his Ph.D. in 1976 at UNM, with a focus on ERE [Envi­ron­men­tal and Resource Eco­nom­ics], there were per­haps only sev­eral dozen econ­o­mists focus­ing on ERE issues nation­ally.” He “caught the first wave” among orig­i­na­tors of ERE and is a pro­lific writer in the field.

He has com­pleted stud­ies per­tain­ing to seis­mic build­ing codes, earth­quake pre­dic­tion impacts, envi­ron­men­tal reg­u­la­tions, endan­gered species, air pol­lu­tion, the effects of seis­mic zon­ing and the value of geo­logic infor­ma­tion and water allo­ca­tion. His cur­rent research inter­ests include ecosys­tem val­u­a­tion, nat­ural haz­ards issues, endan­gered species pro­tec­tion, field and lab­o­ra­tory exper­i­ments for the esti­ma­tion of dis­ag­gre­gated demand of con­sumer water users, the value of water in non-market set­tings, and inte­grated hydrological/biological/economic mod­el­ing of alter­na­tive insti­tu­tional and behav­ioral char­ac­ter­is­tics of water banking/leasing mar­kets. Brook­shire has long par­tic­i­pated in the Water Resources Program.

His nom­i­na­tion included many sup­port­ive com­ments from his peers, includ­ing one who wrote, “David Brook­shire meets the cri­te­ria of being a nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized scholar and is well-deserving of this honor.”

Dr. Mar­i­anne Berwick, a pro­fes­sor in epi­demi­ol­ogy, bio­sta­tis­tics and pre­ven­ta­tive med­i­cine, a divi­sion which she has led since 2004, was instru­men­tal in secur­ing the UNM Can­cer Center’s NCI Can­cer Cen­ter Sta­tus in 2005 and 2010. She has 25 years of con­tin­u­ous fund­ing from the National Can­cer Insti­tute, an exten­sive pub­lish­ing record, as well as a list of hon­ors and awards, includ­ing the Aus­tralian Soci­ety for Oncol­ogy Award, the Stan­ley David­son Lec­ture­ship, Royal Soci­ety of Edin­burgh, and the LILAC Award for can­cer research, Memo­r­ial Sloan Ket­ter­ing Institute.

Berwick earned her under­grad­u­ate degree in Eng­lish, and taught in Cal­i­for­nia, Mon­tana and Con­necti­cut before accom­pa­ny­ing her hus­band on a wildlife study in India. He stud­ied lions and she stud­ied the nomadic buf­falo herders, whose herds pro­vided food for lions. The inter­dis­ci­pli­nary research set her on a path to become an epi­demi­ol­o­gist focused on pub­lic health. She returned to the U.S. and earned a master’s and Ph.D. at Yale.

For the past 25 years, her efforts have been in build­ing a pro­gram focused on the con­tin­uum of melanoma pre­ven­tion. At the UNM Can­cer Cen­ter, she has been able to develop and make new con­tri­bu­tions in melanoma research, with rates of it increas­ing nation­ally, but at a higher rate in New Mex­ico. Her stud­ies formed the basis for under­stand­ing the risk for melanoma, the effi­cacy of screen­ing and fac­tors impor­tant for sur­vival. Berwick’s work in sec­ondary pre­ven­tion, or screen­ing, has pro­duced the first evi­dence that screen­ing by skin self-examination could poten­tially reduce the risk of devel­op­ing and dying from melanoma. In the area of ter­tiary pre­ven­tion – sur­vival – she eval­u­ates the sun expo­sure, skin aware­ness and genetic fac­tors to melanoma survival.

Jane Lan­caster is a 40-year anthro­pol­o­gist with an inter­na­tional rep­u­ta­tion for her research on hominin bioso­cial evo­lu­tion. She has stud­ied pri­mates and humans in both con­tem­po­rary and ancient con­texts. She spe­cial­izes in what used to be called phys­i­cal anthro­pol­ogy, but today is called human evo­lu­tion­ary anthro­pol­ogy. Her train­ing was as a pri­ma­tol­o­gist and pale­oan­thro­pol­o­gist, and she has added exper­tise in con­tem­po­rary human repro­duc­tion viewed through the lens of evo­lu­tion­ary ecology.

Lan­caster has pio­neered research in pri­mate socio-ecology – using tools, lan­guage, par­ent­ing, repro­duc­tive choice – in rela­tion to mod­els of evo­lu­tion­ary change; the evo­lu­tion­ary role of par­ent­ing, espe­cially humans, and devel­op­ment of a hypoth­e­sis based upon embod­ied cap­i­tal through energy invest­ment in off­spring among both par­ents. Her research on the role of men in parental invest­ment has led to advances in under­stand­ing endocrine func­tion in men and women, the spe­cial fea­tures of human lac­ta­tion, and why some eco­nomic cir­cum­stances result in sin­gle par­ent­hood and early repro­duc­tion. She is at the fore­front of research in human evo­lu­tion­ary ecol­ogy that focuses on longer lifes­pans, dif­fer­en­ti­ated roles and greater invest­ment in off­spring. The research evolved to study extended peri­ods of ado­les­cence, menopause, fam­ily strate­gies in fam­i­lies that have played in human evo­lu­tion, past and present.

Lan­caster is founder and edi­tor of Human Nature, the only forum that inte­grates phys­i­ol­ogy, psy­chol­ogy, soci­ol­ogy and behav­ioral ecol­ogy with an evo­lu­tion­ary eye that has trans­formed these fields.

Eric (Sam) Loker, regents’ pro­fes­sor, is an inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized par­a­sitol­o­gist with a long track record of schol­arly pub­lish­ing, research fund­ing and men­tor­ing junior inves­ti­ga­tors. Loker’s research in mol­lus­can immunol­ogy has shown that snails have an immune sys­tem that uses diver­si­fied recep­tors – like the anti­body sys­tem in humans and other ani­mals. Loker’s work is cited in a lead­ing text­book as being the first and best evi­dence that inver­te­brates have an adap­tive immune sys­tem thought only to occur in ver­te­brate ani­mals. This estab­lished new par­a­digms in the­o­ries on immune sys­tem evo­lu­tion as well as pro­vid­ing an under­stand­ing of how species, like snails, who are host to human pathogens, cope with their own infections.

Loker is an inter­na­tional expert in schis­to­so­mi­a­sis, the sec­ond most com­mon human par­a­site after malaria. Schis­to­so­mi­a­sis is endemic in 74 devel­op­ing coun­tries, infect­ing more than 200 mil­lion peo­ple, with another 700 mil­lion at risk. Loker also works in the field, par­tic­u­larly in Africa. His work iden­ti­fy­ing drug resis­tance on worm pop­u­la­tions is con­sid­ered land­mark by his col­leagues. His efforts in snail and worm con­trol have improved qual­ity of life for Kenyans. His nom­i­na­tor wrote, “When it comes to par­a­sitol­ogy, there are few sci­en­tists with Sam’s breadth of knowl­edge. He is an ecol­o­gist, an immu­nol­o­gist and a mol­e­c­u­lar biologist.”

Estab­lish­ing the Cen­ter for Evo­lu­tion­ary and The­o­ret­i­cal Immunol­ogy (CETI) is a UNM and inter­na­tional sci­en­tific con­tri­bu­tion that Loker achieved. Loker saw a con­ver­gence of research inter­ests by UNM biol­o­gists, com­puter sci­en­tists and oth­ers at Los Alamos National Lab­o­ra­tory. He saw a con­cen­tra­tion of exper­tise in immuno­log­i­cal mod­el­ing and com­par­a­tive immunol­ogy in New Mex­ico and he orga­nized a group of inves­ti­ga­tors into a cen­ter. CETI is designed to pro­mote research and new inves­ti­ga­tor devel­op­ment in immuno­log­i­cal the­ory and the study of the evo­lu­tion of immune sys­tems. His nom­i­na­tor wrote, “It is truly inter­dis­ci­pli­nary, pro­mot­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion between biol­o­gists and com­puter sci­en­tists. UNM for­mally rec­og­nized CETI as a level I cen­ter in 2005.”

Dr. David Schade, pro­fes­sor of med­i­cine, decided early in his aca­d­e­mic research career to focus on the clin­i­cal treat­ment of dia­betes and its com­pli­ca­tions. His salary has been funded con­tin­u­ously, in part, by the NIH and the Amer­i­can Dia­betes Asso­ci­a­tion for the past 45 years. His stud­ies included implant­ing a remotely con­trolled insulin pump in type 1 dia­betes. He estab­lished a Dia­betes Research and Treat­ment Cen­ter to facil­i­tate his two large multi-center, NIH sup­ported dia­betes grants. Because of their suc­cess, the two land­mark, ran­dom­ized clin­i­cal tri­als have each received sev­eral five-year annual NIH renewals. Schade recently received two $600,000 grants from the Amer­i­can Dia­betes Asso­ci­a­tion to study improved treat­ments of type 1 dia­betes and the patho­gen­e­sis of ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis in type 2 dia­betes. This year, he received a new $4 mil­lion NIH com­par­a­tive effec­tive­ness grant.

Schade col­lab­o­rates closely with other dia­betes sci­en­tists. He has served on mul­ti­ple com­mit­tees – pub­li­ca­tions, stud­ies, etc. — work­ing closely with other inves­ti­ga­tors. He has planned and orga­nized pub­li­ca­tions of two sem­i­nal books, Inten­sive Insulin Ther­apy and Dia­betic Coma, in the field of dia­betes, in which he col­lab­o­rated with dia­betol­o­gists in the United States and Great Britain.

In addi­tion to his aca­d­e­mic pur­suits, he is chief of the Divi­sion of Endocrinol­ogy, vice chair for research in the Depart­ment of Inter­nal Med­i­cine, and has a full clin­i­cal load car­ing for both in– and out­pa­tients at Uni­ver­sity Hospital.

His nom­i­na­tor wrote, “Dr. Schade is and has been an extremely pro­duc­tive mem­ber of the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Health Sci­ences Cen­ter for the las 47 years and fully deserves the des­ig­na­tion of Dis­tin­guished Professor.”

Dr. Howard Yonas is a nation­ally rec­og­nized cere­brovas­cu­lar sur­geon, an inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized expert on cere­bral blood flow, metab­o­lism and mon­i­tor­ing brain activ­ity. His nom­i­na­tor said, “He is a fiercely ded­i­cated edu­ca­tor of res­i­dents, stu­dents and nurses.”

Yonas estab­lished the UNM Depart­ment of Neu­ro­surgery in 2005, is a pro­lific writer, has received more than $10 mil­lion in grant fund­ing and has an ongo­ing project to develop a statewide telemed­i­cine net­work to eval­u­ate and man­age acute stroke. In recog­ni­tion of his sem­i­nal con­tri­bu­tions to the sci­ence and prac­tice of neu­ro­surgery, and the health and well-being of his patients, Dr. Yonas was named the inau­gural A. Earl and Agnes M. Walker Chair of Neu­ro­surgery in 2009.

Yonas, who served as a flight sur­geon in the United States Air Force, has ini­ti­ated sev­eral projects to improve the health of New Mex­i­cans. This includes devel­op­ing the Neu­ro­science Inten­sive Care Unit and devel­op­ing a multi-specialty neu­ro­science out­pa­tient clinic.

Under Yonas’s tenure, the clin­i­cal prac­tice of neu­ro­surgery has grown sig­nif­i­cantly, basic sci­ence and clin­i­cal research has expanded, and the train­ing pro­gram has received full Accred­i­ta­tion Coun­cil of Grad­u­ate Med­ical Edu­ca­tion accreditation.

Yonas com­pleted his neu­ro­surgery res­i­dency at Case West­ern Reserve, fol­lowed by a fel­low­ship with cere­brovas­cu­lar surgery pio­neer Gazi Yasargil in Switzer­land. He was on the fac­ulty of the Uni­ver­sity of Pitts­burgh School of Med­i­cine and for 25 years main­tained an aca­d­e­mic clin­i­cal prac­tice spe­cial­iz­ing in cere­brovas­cu­lar surgery. He taught the fine tech­niques of cere­bral aneurysm surgery, brain bypass surgery and carotid artery surgery. He joined the UNM fac­ulty in 2005, bring­ing a level of exper­tise in cere­brovas­cu­lar surgery that was never before avail­able in New Mex­ico. He main­tains an active clin­i­cal prac­tice and con­tin­ues to teach and share his sur­gi­cal skills.

Yonas’s nom­i­na­tor wrote, “Howard Yonas is a com­pas­sion­ate physi­cian, gifted scholar, out­stand­ing edu­ca­tor and wor­thy rep­re­sen­ta­tive of our institution.”

Dr. Vic­tor Stras­burger, pro­fes­sor of pedi­atrics, is chief in the Divi­sion of Ado­les­cent Med­i­cine. He is an inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized leader in aca­d­e­mic med­i­cine who has ded­i­cated his career to improv­ing ado­les­cent med­i­cine. He lec­tures exten­sively and has pub­lished six text­books and seven other books.

Among his most sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ments are rais­ing “Chil­dren and Media,” as a pedi­atric issue for the Amer­i­can Acad­emy of Pedi­atrics (AAP) and for pedi­a­tri­cians around the coun­try, help­ing to cre­ate the cur­rent tele­vi­sion rat­ings sys­tem. He founded the only clin­i­cal jour­nal in his field, Ado­les­cent Med­i­cine: State of the Art Reviews, and his text­book, Chil­dren, Ado­les­cents, & the Media (Sage, 2009, 2nd ed,), which is used on col­lege cam­puses across the country.

When Stras­burger arrived in New Mex­ico in 1987, he con­tacted the gov­er­nor to con­vene a task force on teen preg­nancy. Cur­rently, he spends time each week as med­ical direc­tor for Sequoyah Treat­ment Cen­ter, a res­i­den­tial treat­ment cen­ter for adolescents.

Stras­burger is the recip­i­ent of many hon­ors and awards, includ­ing the Adele Delen­baugh Hof­mann Award from the Amer­i­can Acad­emy of Pedi­atrics in 2000 for life­time achieve­ment in Ado­les­cent Med­i­cine; the first Holroyd-Sherry Award from the AAP in 2000 for his national media advo­cacy work, and the Hof­mann Vis­it­ing Pro­fes­sor­ship in Ado­les­cent Med­i­cine in 2007 from the Soci­ety for Ado­les­cent Medicine.

His nom­i­na­tor wrote, “Dr. Stras­burger is emi­nently qual­i­fied for des­ig­na­tion as a UNM Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor. He is a com­pas­sion­ate physi­cian, inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized scholar, out­stand­ing edu­ca­tor and wor­thy rep­re­sen­ta­tive of our institution.”

Nom­i­na­tions for Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor orig­i­nate at the depart­ment level and must have the rec­om­men­da­tion of the depart­men­tal and/or col­lege fac­ulty with which the can­di­date is affil­i­ated. Upon receiv­ing a rec­om­men­da­tion, the Provost, in con­sul­ta­tion with the Fac­ulty Sen­ate Oper­a­tions Com­mit­tee, appoints a University-wide com­mit­tee of no fewer than five non-administrative senior fac­ulty to review the nominee’s dossier and make appro­pri­ate rec­om­men­da­tions to the Provost, who makes the appoint­ment. The posi­tion of Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor is not pro­pri­etary with a depart­ment or col­lege. Upon ter­mi­na­tion of employ­ment of a dis­tin­guished pro­fes­sor, the title may not be passed on to another indi­vid­ual unless the pro­ce­dure described herein has been followed.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; email: cgonzal@unm.edu