Editor’s Note: The information for this story was written and provided by the Office of University Development and compiled by James Iseler of The University Record.
Thirty-one University of Michigan faculty members have received awards this fall for their notable contributions in teaching, mentoring, service, and scholarship. They were honored at a Faculty Awards Celebration on Sept. 18.
Distinguished University Professorships
The Board of Regents established the Distinguished University Professorships in 1947 to recognize senior faculty for exceptional scholarly or creative achievement, national and international reputation, and superior records of teaching, mentoring, and service. Faculty selected for this recognition name the professorship after a distinguished person in their field, in consultation with the dean of their school or college. The appointment duration is unlimited, and recipients are expected to deliver an inaugural lecture. The recipients are:
Sergey Fomin
Richard P. Stanley Distinguished University Professor of Mathematics and professor of mathematics, LSA
Fomin is internationally celebrated for his breakthrough contributions to mathematics. He is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Fomin earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at St. Petersburg State University in 1982 in what was then the U.S.S.R. He joined U-M in 1999. With his late collaborator, Andrei Zelevinsky, Fomin introduced and developed the theory of cluster algebras, a groundbreaking concept that has found numerous applications in mathematics and theoretical physics. More than 200 international conferences have been devoted to cluster algebras and related topics. The American Mathematical Society awarded Fomin and Zelevinsky the 2018 Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research, recognizing their work for its “lasting importance.” He is a member of the Council of the American Mathematical Society and former managing editor of its flagship journal. He has overseen his department’s efforts to expand the ranks of underrepresented scholars in mathematics. Many of his former mentees hold academic positions at research universities around the world.
Roger D. Cone
Tadataka Yamada Distinguished University Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology; vice provost and director of the Biosciences Initiative, Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs; Mary Sue Coleman Director and research professor, Life Sciences Institute; professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, LSA; professor of molecular and integrative physiology, Medical School
Cone is a leader in obesity and metabolic disease research, having identified receptor genes critical to the regulation of energy balance by the brain. This discovery led to the first therapeutic agent for multiple genetic obesity syndromes. In 2016, Cone was named Mary Sue Coleman Director of the Life Sciences Institute and later vice provost and director of the Biosciences Initiative. He earned his Ph.D. at MIT in 1985, joining Vanderbilt University in 2008 as chair of the physiology department before coming to U-M. Cone champions innovation and advances promising life-sciences initiatives and new funding packages to retain and recruit top-tier scholars. He has secured 20 U.S. patents, co-founded three biotech companies, taught molecular and cell biology and neurobiology for 25 years, and mentored 21 doctoral trainees and 38 postdoctoral fellows.
Jeffrey A. Fessler
William L. Root Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and of biomedical engineering, interim chair of the Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering; and professor of radiology, Medical School
Fessler transformed medical imaging with his advances in SPECT, PET, CT, and MRI imaging systems. These contributions have shaped the field of image reconstruction. Fessler completed his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University and joined U-M in 1990. His early work improved SPECT cardiac stress tests and developed an algorithm for PET imaging adopted by GE Systems. Fessler’s research increased the safety and reliability of low-dose X-ray CT scans, embraced by Philips and other manufacturers. His MRI innovations span over 20 years. Students named him Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor of the Year in 2000, 2016, and 2022. He received the College of Engineering’s highest faculty honor, the Stephen S. Attwood Award, in 2023.
Deborah Loewenberg Ball
Jessie Jean Storey-Fry Distinguished University Professor of Education; Arthur F. Thurnau Professor; professor of education, Marsal Family School of Education; research professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ball is an internationally respected scholar whose work is grounded in the study of mathematics education and teaching practice. Her pioneering research has shaped teacher education, providing important insights into the ways that inequity and oppression regularly pervade normative teaching practice, and how teacher education and development can help disrupt this. She began her career as an elementary teacher and continues to teach young children every summer while making visible, for research purposes, the day-to-day work of teachers. She earned her Ph.D. in 1988 from Michigan State University. She has worked with mathematicians, teachers and mathematics educators to identify the specialized mathematical knowledge needed for teaching, and showed its relationship to and difference from disciplinary mathematical knowledge. This work became the basis for her receipt of the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction’s Felix Klein Medal for lifetime achievement in mathematics education research. She is the most highly cited author worldwide in that field. Presidents Barack Obama and Joseph Biden appointed her to the National Science Board. She also served as dean of the School of Education from 2005-16.
Deborah Dash Moore
Jonathan Freedman Distinguished University Professor of History and Judaic Studies; Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor, professor of history and of Judaic studies, LSA
Moore is a world-renowned scholar of American Jewish history and Jewish women’s history. Her intellectual curiosity and investigative rigor have shaped several fields, from urban studies to the visual arts, and endeared her to countless students. She joined U-M in 2005 as director of the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and expanded it into an internationally respected Jewish studies program. Under her leadership, the center established the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, which hosts scholars from around the world, and a graduate certificate in Judaic studies for students working toward doctoral degrees in related disciplines. She has authored eight books, channeling her energies in unexplored directions. She focused on America as modern Jewish scholars concentrated on Europe; on women when the emphasis was on men; and on immersion in Jewish identity when others touted assimilation. She is the recipient of three National Jewish Book Awards, the Jewish Cultural Achievement Award in 2013, and the Lee Max Friedman Award Medal for distinguished service in the field of American Jewish History in 2012.
Robert M. Sellers
James S. Jackson Distinguished University Professor of Psychology; professor of psychology, LSA; professor of education, Marsal Family School of Education; faculty associate, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research
Sellers helped transform the field of psychology, particularly the study of racial identity development. Scholarship on underrepresented groups is now mainstream due, in part, to his and his students’ research. Sellers, who earned his Ph.D. from U-M in 1990 and returned as an associate professor in 1997, is hailed as “one of the most influential psychologists in the modern era” by the American Psychological Association. He is best known for his model of African American racial identity, a theoretical and empirical framework that captures the complexity and diversity of Black people in the United States. He co-founded the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Social Contexts to provide a setting for scholars from multiple disciplines to share racial identity research. He received the Mentor Award in 2023 and the James S. Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award for Transformative Scholarship in 2024, both from the Association for Psychological Science, for his commitment to his students and his scholarly impact on the field. He helped develop Wolverine Pathways, a free college preparatory program that has become a national model. In 2023, he was elected to the National Academy of Science.
Distinguished Faculty Achievement Awards
The Distinguished Faculty Achievement Awards honor senior faculty who consistently have demonstrated outstanding achievements in the areas of scholarly research or creative endeavors, teaching and mentoring of students and junior colleagues, service and other activities. The recipients are:
Vernon B. Carruthers
Professor of microbiology and immunology, Medical School
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