The University of New Mexico’s College of Arts and Sciences has named Luis Campos, Irene Salinas and Owen Whooley as Regents’ Lecturers—a distinguishing title bestowed on selected tenured, junior faculty members that merit recognition of their accomplishments as teachers, scholars and leaders both in university affairs and in their national professional communities.

“The College uses these awards to recognize remarkable faculty, and we are extremely pleased that this year we are making awards to three outstanding people from across the three broad areas within the College: Dr. Campos from the Humanities, Dr. Salinas from the Physical Sciences, and Dr. Whooley from the Social Sciences,” said Sr. Associate Dean for Faculty Philip Ganderton.

Luis Campos
Regents' Lecturer Dr. Luis Campos

Campos, an associate professor in the History Department, joined the faculty in 2012 as a historian of science and as a Senior Fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy. Campos also serves as secretary of the History of Science Society.

He is trained in both biology and in the history of science; however, his scholarship integrates archival discoveries with contemporary fieldwork at the intersection of genetics and society.

Campos has received grants and fellowships from a number of institutions including the Library of Congress, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the National Science Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, The National Humanities Center and NASA.

His publications include Radium and the Secret of Life; “Neanderthals in Space: George Church’s Modest Steps Towards Possible Futures;” “Dialectics Denied: Muller, Lysenkoism, and the Fate of Chromosomal Mutation” and more.

Irene Salinas
Regents' Lecturer Dr. Irene Salinas

Salinas, an associate professor in the Biology Department, is an evolutionary immunologist who has been a part of the faculty since 2011. Salinas enjoys the complexity of immune systems, from bacteria to humans. Through the Center for Theoretical and Evolutionary Immunology (CETI), her research focuses on mucosal immunity and its evolution in vertebrates. Mucosal surfaces are at the interface between hosts and the environment and therefore integrate the external and internal signals.

Her laboratory dives into very diverse research interests including active projects in trout, zebrafish, lungfish, mice and humans reflecting the reflect the diversity and breath of the research that takes place at the UNM Biology Department. In recent years, her research has specialized in the understanding of the nasal immunity and the neuroimmune interactions that occur in the olfactory-central nervous system axis in response to microorganisms.

Owen Whooley
Regents' Lecturer Dr. Owen Whooley

Whooley is an associate professor in the Sociology Department. His research interests focus on the Sociology of Health and Medicine, Social Movements, Science and Knowledge, Sociology of Mental Health and Sociology of Ignorance. Whooley specifically studies medical professionals, adapting historical and qualitative research methods to explore research questions related to medical knowledge and power.

His areas of interest include: the emergence of epistemic cultures and evolution of medical concepts; the strategies by which actors advocate for knowledge claims; the role of organizations in legitimating certain understandings of health and disease; the local practices by which doctors and patients negotiate meanings; and the way in which social movements and non-traditional “knowers” participate in the production of medical knowledge.

Whooley’s recent publications include On the Heels of Ignorance: Psychiatry and the Politics of Not Knowing; “Defining Mental Disorders;” “Measuring Mental Disorders: The Failed Commensuration Project of DSM-5;” “Dropping the ‘Disorder’ in PTSD” and “Nosological Reflections: The Failure of DSM-5, the Emergence of RDoC, and the Decontextualization of Mental Illness.”

The process for Regents’ Lecturer appointments occurs every three years, and begins with a call for nominations from the Associate Dean for Faculty to all department chairs. Through the judgement of the Dean and advice from the faculty selection committee, Regent Lecturers are appointed for three-year terms.

A complete nomination consists of the candidate’s curriculum vitae, a statement of teaching philosophy, a statement describing their research and scholarship and a letter of nomination from the candidate’s department chair indicating the candidate’s qualification and the extent of the departmental faculty support for the nomination.

Recipients receive an annual stipend, which can be distributed at their discretion to be applied towards professional development expenses or as extra compensation.

“This award, made possible by the Regents of the University, is one of a number of ways in which we can identify, acknowledge, and reward outstanding faculty making contributions across all dimensions of the academic life – for scholarship, for teaching, and for their service to the University, the profession, and the community,” said Ganderton.

For more information, visit College of Arts & Sciences Awards and Guidelines.