Faculty members named University Professors and Distinguished Professors
USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences faculty members Susan Forsburg and Sherman Jackson have been named Distinguished Professors and Steve Kay has been named University Professor.
“These exceptional faculty members have brought great distinction to the university,” USC Provost Charles Zukoski wrote in an email sent Tuesday to the university community. “Recognizing each of them is an honor for President [Carol L.] Folt and me.”
Both recognitions are awarded very selectively. The University Professor distinction is awarded by the president based on multidisciplinary interests and significant accomplishments in several disciplines. The Distinguished Professor distinction is awarded by the president to those whose accomplishments have brought special renown to USC.
USC Dornsife’s new Distinguished Professors
Susan Forsburg is professor of biological sciences and was formerly a Gabilan Distinguished Professor in Science and Engineering. Her lab focuses on chromosome duplication and its contribution to genomic stability, using a combination of techniques and methods from molecular biology to cutting-edge microscopy. Because the loss of genome integrity has a deep impact, her research has contributed to our understanding of how the deregulation of cell division contributes to the growth of cancer cells.
She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the California Academy of Sciences and an elected member of the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2011, she was recognized with the Evans Award from the American Society of Microbiology to honor her contributions to the advancement of women in microbiology.
Sherman Jackson is the King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture professor of religion and American studies and ethnicity. Jackson, who teaches classical Islamic studies, including law, theology and intellectual history, focuses his research on the realities of modern Islam in the West, especially Muslim communities in America.
Jackson is a co-founder, core scholar and member of the Board of Trustees of the American Learning Institute for Muslims, an academic institution where scholars, professionals, activists, artists, writers, and community leaders come together to develop strategies for the future of Islam in the modern world. He has been named among the world’s 500 most influential Muslims by The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre.
USC Dornsife’s new University Professor
Steve Kay currently serves as the director of the MESH (Medicine, Engineering, Sciences and Humanities) Academy and the director of the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, and is a Provost Professor of Neurology, Biomedical Engineering and Biological Sciences. He held the position of dean of USC Dornsife from 2012 to 2015. He is a leading expert on the genetics and genomics of circadian rhythms.
An elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the Royal Society, Kay was named by Thomson Reuters as one of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” from 2014 to 2017 and has been cited in Science magazine’s “Breakthroughs of the Year” three times since 1997. In 2009, he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 2011 he was awarded the American Society of Plant Biologists’ 2011 Martin Gibbs Medal for his pioneering work in plant sciences.
See USC News for the complete list of USC faculty honored >>