Four UK Professors Honored for Outstanding Research Programs
LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 9, 2014) ― One of the University of Kentucky's most prestigious awards is the University Research Professorship. Four UK professors were recognized by the UK Board of Trustees today with that honor: Richard Charnigo, Francie Chassen-López, Debra Moser, and Mark Prendergast.
University Research Professorships were established by the university in 1976 to promote research, provide an opportunity for concentrated research effort, recognize outstanding achievement, and emphasize the function of research and discovery.
“The University Research Professorships enhance and encourage scholarly research productivity while celebrating the discoveries of UK’s top faculty scholars,” said UK President Eli Capilouto. “We are proud to recognize their contributions to campus, their fields and the people they touch and teach.”
The honor carries an award of $40,000 to enable professors to devote time to their research or continue to teach and use the award to support research activities.
Richard Charnigo is a tenured full professor in the Departments of Statistics and Biostatistics at the University of Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. in statistics from Case Western Reserve University in 2003. His research interests include mixture modeling, nonparametric smoothing, cardiology, psychology, and public health. Charnigo has published more than 100 articles in peer-review journals, is currently an editor-in-chief of the Journal of Biometrics and Biostatistics, and has been principal investigator on grants from the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office.
Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences, Francie Chassen-López was also recently named Provost´s Distinguished Service Professor. She received her master's and Ph.D. from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and her B.A. from Vassar College. Before she returned to the U.S., she taught in Mexico City for 10 years, first at the National University and later at the Autonomous Metropolitan University. She continues to work closely with colleagues in Mexico City and Oaxaca. She has been a visiting researcher at both the Institute for Sociological Research and at the Humanities Institute of the University of Oaxaca. She has produced two single-authored books; two co-authored books; two short books; three edited short anthologies, and 37 journal articles and books chapters. Chassen-López has twice served as director of Latin American Studies at UK and was the first woman to chair the UK Department of History.
Debra K. Moser is a full professor and holder of the first endowed chair in nursing at the University of Kentucky. Her research concentrates on improving morbidity, mortality and quality of life outcomes in patients with heart failure and acute myocardial infarction. Her research program includes more than $30 million in funding. Her work has been recognized with more than 23 awards, including the Lembright and Heart Failure Research Awards from the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Nursing. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the American Heart Association. In addition to her academic position, she is the co-editor of the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, the co-director of the RICH Heart Program, and the director of the Center for Biobehavioral Research in Self-Management of Cardiopulmonary Disease. Known for expertise in heart failure and acute myocardial infarction patient care, she has published more than 290 journal articles, 25 chapters, and three books, and lectures extensively in these areas.
Mark Prendergast is a full professor in the Department of Psychology and an associate member of the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center, a unit of the UK College of Medicine. He received his doctoral degree in developmental psychobiology from the University of Nebraska in 1994 followed by a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Medical College of Georgia. In 1997, he started a second postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pharmacology at UK and two years later joined the Department of Psychology with direct responsibility for both undergraduate and graduate education. Prendergast has maintained an externally funded research program since 1999, almost entirely based on awards from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. In addition, he has been a training faculty member on two National Institute on Drug Abuse programs since 2000. Prendergast has 81 publications of refereed scientific manuscripts and four book chapters. Since 2005, he has been the area coordinator for the Behavioral Neuroscience and Psychopharmacology Area of the Department of Psychology.
Nominations for University Research Professorships are made by UK faculty members and screened by a faculty committee appointed by the Vice President for Research.
MEDIA CONTACT: Kathy Johnson, 859-257-3155