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Columns of the Jack K. Williams Building on the Texas A&M University campus

Thirteen Texas A&M University professors have been appointed to endowed chairs and professorships within the College of Arts and Sciences, effective Sept. 1, 2024, announced Dr. Mark J. Zoran, dean of Texas A&M Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Brian Anderson has been appointed to the Charles Puryear Professorship in Liberal Arts, established in 1991 by the Ella C. McFadden Trust to support liberal arts faculty at Texas A&M and honor Puryear, a former member of the faculty in the legacy College of Liberal Arts.

Dr. Winfred Arthur Jr. has been appointed to the John Paul Abbott Professorship in Liberal Arts, established in 1991 with matching funds from donations to the Chalk Professorship and from Mr. Tom Connelly to support faculty at Texas A&M and honor Abbott, a former member of the faculty in the legacy College of Liberal Arts.

Dr. Xiaowei Chen has been appointed to the Robert R. Berg Professorship in Geology & Geophysics, established in 2000 by combining existing departmental funds with contributions from Berg’s former students that were matched by Texas A&M geology graduate Dudley J. Hughes ’51 to support departmental faculty in the Department of Geology and Geophysics and honor Berg, a longtime professor in the department.

Dr. Steven F. DiMarco has been appointed to the William R. Bryant Oceanography Chair for Teaching, Research and Mentoring Excellence, established in 2007 by more than two dozen of Bryant’s former students, led by Texas A&M oceanography master’s graduate Dale Coulthard ’76 and his wife Teresa, to support the teaching, research, service and professional development activities of the holder in the Department of Oceanography, where Bryant was a longtime professor.

Dr. Marian Eide has been appointed to the Murray and Celeste Fasken Chair in Distinguished Teaching in the Liberal Arts, established in 1991 by the Fasken Foundation in honor of Texas A&M liberal arts graduate R.A. “Murray” Fasken ’38 and his wife Celeste to support, nurture and celebrate faculty who are exceptional teachers within the college that teaches more students than any other at Texas A&M.

Dr. Jessi Halligan has been appointed to the Center for the Study of the First Americans Professorship in Liberal Arts, established in 2002 by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents and Texas A&M Foundation under One Spirit One Vision – The Texas A&M Campaign to support the teaching, research, service and professional development activities of the holder in accordance with university guidelines.

Dr. Sonia Hernández has been appointed to the George T. & Gladys H. Abell Professorship of Liberal Arts II, established in 1985 with matching funds from the Abell-Hanger Foundation as one of three such professorships created to support liberal arts faculty at Texas A&M.

Dr. Nadia Kim has been appointed to the George Sumey Jr. Professorship in Liberal Arts, established in 1992 by the Ella C. McFadden Memorial Trust in combination with college contributions to support faculty and honor Sumey, a former member of the faculty in the legacy College of Liberal Arts.

Dr. Joseph M. Landsberg has been appointed to the Arthur G. and Mary E. Owen Endowed Professorship II in Mathematics, established in 2005 by then-Arthur George and Mary Emolene Owen Chair in Mathematics co-holders Dr. William Johnson and Dr. Gilles Pisier using proceeds from the Owens’ original gift to help attract mathematical scholars of the highest caliber to Texas A&M.

Dr. Ragan Petrie has been appointed to the George T. and Gladys H. Abell Professorship of Liberal Arts I, established in 1985 with matching funds from the Abell-Hanger Foundation as one of three such professorships created to support liberal arts faculty at Texas A&M.

Dr. Krista Lynne Smith has been appointed to the Mitchell-Heep-Munnerlyn Endowed Career Enhancement Chair in Physics, established in 2005 by Texas A&M distinguished petroleum engineering graduate George P. Mitchell ’40 and the Herman F. Heep and Minnie Belle Heep Texas A&M University Foundation of College Station using additional funds from the Charles R. ’62 and Judith G. Munnerlyn Trust to support early career physicists and astronomers at Texas A&M.

Dr. Jin Zhang has been appointed to the Rosie M. and Murry D. Page Geology & Geophysics Endowed Professorship, established in 1997 by Texas A&M geology graduate Murry D. Page ’51 through the Rosie M. and Murry D. Page Endowment for Geology and Geophysics under the Expanding Excellence Campaign to support the holder’s research.

Dr. Renyi Zhang has been appointed to the Mr. and Mrs. James R. Whatley ’47 Chair in Geosciences, established in 2009 by Mrs. James R. Whatley in honor of Whatley, a 1947 Texas A&M accounting graduate, to support the teaching, research, service and professional development activities of the holder in accordance with university guidelines.

“Endowed chairs or professorships are gifts to Texas A&M from donors who care deeply about our institution, our faculty and students and our collective future," said Zoran, who holds the R.H. Harrison Family Dean's Chair of Arts and Sciences and is a professor in the Department of Biology. "The outstanding holders of these endowed positions are bestowed financial support but also a prestige that distinguishes their scholarship and accomplishments. Perhaps most importantly, these gifted positions support the scholars' future successes.

“I am proud of our appointees to these academic chairs and professorships. I am truly grateful for the generosity of our donors and their commitment to this foundational support.”

The 13 professors will be recognized along with 21 additional Texas A&M Arts and Sciences faculty who were newly appointed or reappointed to endowed chairs or professorships earlier this year as part of the college’s second annual investiture ceremony, set for November 14 in the Memorial Student Center’s Bethancourt Ballroom.

Texas A&M University neurologist Brian Anderson
Dr. Brian Anderson

Anderson, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2016 and serves as founding director of the Human Imaging Facility and principal investigator for the Learning and Attention Laboratory. He earned his Ph.D. in psychological and brain sciences from Johns Hopkins University in 2014 and spent two years there as a postdoctoral fellow before coming to Texas A&M, where his research has provided fundamental insights into the mechanisms of visual attention. He pioneered a method for studying how the relationship between reward and visual stimuli in one task setting can impact the allocation of attention in other contexts — a breakthrough that resulted in the striking discovery that visual features previously associated with rewards continue to draw attention even when those features are neither relevant nor salient. This value-driven form of attentional capture also provides a useful model for understanding failures of value-based cognitive control, such as in addiction. His work has further examined the relationship of value-based attention to dopamine signaling and to the processing of both aversive and rewarding stimuli. Anderson has published more than 100 original research articles and 14 review articles and has been recognized with early career awards from the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Psychonomic Society and the Vision Sciences Society.

Texas A&M University psychologist Winfred Arthur Jr.
Dr. Winfred Arthur Jr.

Arthur, a professor in Texas A&M Psychological and Brain Sciences, specializes in the research, development, implementation and evaluation of personnel and human resource management systems and programs. His primary research is in the areas of personnel psychology with an emphasis on testing and assessment, selection and validation, and associated methodological issues; individual and team training with a focus on complex skill acquisition, decay and retention; and individual differences related to skill acquisition and performance on complex information processing tasks. Arthur received his Ph.D. in industrial-organizational psychology from the University of Akron in 1988. He has authored more than 90 refereed journal publications, two books and 29 book chapters. He is a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the Association of Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association.

Texas A&M University geologist Xiaowei Chen
Dr. Xiaowei Chen

Chen, an associate professor in Texas A&M Geology and Geophysics, is an observational seismologist whose research is focused on how faults respond to tectonic and anthropogenic activities, how earthquakes interact, how aseismic processes (such as fluid or slow slip) interact with seismic slip, and factors that influence earthquake rupture characteristics. She studies earthquakes from various tectonic environments, such as tectonically active regions in the western United States and Japan and intraplate regions, such as Oklahoma. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 2013. Prior to joining the Texas A&M faculty in 2022, she was a presidential associate professor at the University of Oklahoma.

Texas A&M University oceanographer Steven DiMarco
Dr. Steven DiMarco

DiMarco, a professor in Texas A&M Oceanography as well as the Department of Ocean Engineering, is director of the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Dallas in 1991. An elected fellow of the Marine Technology Society (2020), he was and has served as chief scientist on more than 40 oceanographic cruises. DiMarco's research, teaching, and service is focused on the field of ocean observing systems; i.e., collecting, reporting, and publicly disseminating real-time oceanographic observations. His research specializes in the interactions of physical and biogeochemical processes of the coastal and deep ocean and marginal seas at middle and tropical latitudes.

Texas A&M University English professor Marian Eide
Dr. Marian Eide

Eide, a professor in the Department of English, is also an affiliated faculty member with the Women's and Gender Studies Program. She is the author of Ethical Joyce (Cambridge 2002); After Combat: True War Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan (Potomac 2018) with Col. (Ret.) Michael Gibler, U.S. Army-Infantry; and Terrible Beauty: The Violent Aesthetic and Twentieth-Century Literature (UVAPress, 2019) as well as more than a dozen articles on 20th century literature and culture. She has been a fellow at the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah and with the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research. Her research concerns ethics, aesthetics and violence.

Texas A&M University anthropologist Jessi Halligan
Dr. Jessi Halligan

Halligan, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, is an anthropological archaeologist who works on three major related research topics in North American archaeology and anthropology: 1) understanding when and how the New World was first colonized by Indigenous peoples in the late Pleistocene and the lifeways of these first peoples; 2) the geoarchaeology of submerged landscapes, including site formation processes and discovery of submerged sites; and 3) foraging societies. She works both underwater and on land and has more than 30 years of experience in the archaeology of North America. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Texas A&M in 2012. Before returning in January 2024 to her alma mater, where she also serves as associate director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans, Halligan held positions at the University of Wisconsin La Cross and Florida State University.

Texas A&M University history professor Sonia Hernández
Dr. Sonia Hernández

Hernández, a professor in the Department of History, specializes in the intersections of gender and labor in the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands, Mexican American history and Modern Mexico. She joined the Texas A&M History faculty in 2014 and has served in various capacities during the past decade, including as the department’s graduate placement director, an affiliate of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and former director of the Latino/a and Mexican American Studies program. Hernández is co-founder of the public history project, Refusing to Forget, which was recognized with awards from the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians and the Western History Association. She has published in Spanish and English. Her first book, Working Women into the Borderlands, earned three book prizes. Her book, For a Just and Better World: Engendering Anarchism in the Mexican Borderlands, 1900-1938, earned the Philip Taft Book Prize. She has published award-winning articles in the Journal of American History, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies and Humanitas, among other outlets. Funded by a Fulbright García-Robles Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, Hernández is at work on a book project recovering the gendered, racial, and transnational dimensions of the 1901 lynching attempt of the migrant cowboy Gregorio Cortez. She received a Ph.D. in Latin American history from the University of Houston in 2006.

Texas A&M University sociology professor Nadia Kim
Dr. Nadia Kim

Kim, a professor in the Department of Sociology, received her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Michigan in 2003 and is a Claudius M. Easley Jr. Faculty Fellow at Texas A&M. She examines U.S. race, citizenship, immigrant and gender hierarchies concerning Korean/Asian Americans, South Korea/ns and Latine (Mexican ethnics); environmental justice; and theory and comparative racialization regarding Latine as well as Asian and Black Americans. Throughout her work, Kim’s approach centers on neo-imperialism, transnationality, intersectionality and neo-liberalism. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2022 Susanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship for her book, Refusing Death: Immigrant Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice in LA. In addition, she has been featured by a host of media outlets, including National Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio, Red Table Talk, Radio Korea, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Korea Times, NYLON Magazine and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She also has served as a community organizer.

Texas A&M University mathematician Joseph Landsberg
Dr. Joseph Landsberg

Landsberg, a professor in the Department of Mathematics, has broad research interests that include differential geometry, algebraic geometry, and representation theory. His current research focuses on applications of geometry, especially to complexity theory in theoretical computer science. Landsberg, who joined the Texas A&M Mathematics faculty in 2004 and is a 2017 fellow of the American Mathematical Society, has been a Université Toulouse chaire d’excellence, a Clay senior scholar for the tensor program at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles and a Chancellor's Professor at Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at the University of California, Berkeley. He has authored six books, the most recent of which, Quantum Computing and Quantum Information: A Mathematical Perspective, was published this year within the AMS Graduate Studies in Mathematics series. He received his Ph.D. in 1990 from Duke University.

Texas A&M University economist Ragan Petrie
Dr. Ragan Petrie

Petrie, a professor in the Department of Economics, is an applied microeconomist who uses behavioral and experimental approaches to study public and labor economics topics. Her research includes motives for charitable giving, gender differences in bargaining and competition, discrimination, social media and the economic preferences of children. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her research has been published in the Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, Economic Journal, Journal of Public Economics and Journal of Economic Literature. She is a Texas A&M Presidential Impact Fellow and a Cornerstone Faculty Fellow in Liberal Arts and holds the Elton Lewis Faculty Fellowship in Liberal Arts. Petrie was a Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Institute at the University of Melbourne in Australia, where she was on the inaugural steering committee for the national Taking the Pulse of the Nation Survey. She is a fellow of the CESifo Research Network and earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Texas A&M University astronomer Krista Lynne Smith
Dr. Krista Lynne Smith

Smith, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is an observational astrophysicist and member of the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy who specializes in time domain observations of black hole accretion disks and jets, the search for binary supermassive black holes and the effect of supermassive black holes on their host galaxies. She earned her Ph.D. in astronomy in 2017 at the University of Maryland as a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth and Space Sciences Fellow, then completed a three-year Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University’s Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology prior to beginning her independent academic career as an assistant professor of physics at Southern Methodist University in 2020. Smith joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2023 and was selected earlier this year by NASA's Astrophysics Division as one of the six U.S. scientists serving on the joint European Space Agency (ESA)-NASA Science Team for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, which is set to begin searching for gravitational wave signatures in space within the next decade. She also leads the black hole accretion steering committee for NASA’s upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory.

Texas A&M University geophysicist Jin Zhang
Dr. Jin Zhang

Jin Zhang, an associate professor in Texas A&M Geology and Geophysics, is a high pressure-temperature mineral physicist whose research focuses on the compositions, structures and dynamics of the Earth and other planets through high pressure-temperature experiments. Her primary research tool is Brillouin spectroscopy for in situ sound velocity measurements of Earth and planetary materials, which are essential for interpreting various geophysical and geochemical observations in the planetary interiors. She also uses synchrotron X-ray techniques and large volume press to study other petrology and volcanology problems, such as high pressure-temperature phase equilibrium, magma viscosity, volatile storage and transport in the deep Earth and on other planets. Zhang conducts experiments at synchrotron facilities such as the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility. She earned her Ph.D. in geology from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2014 and served as an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico prior to joining the Texas A&M faculty in 2022. Her awards to date include a 2019 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award and the 2023 American Geophysical Union Mineral and Rock Physics Early Career Award.

Texas A&M University atmospheric scientist Renyi Zhang
Dr. Renyi Zhang

Renyi Zhang, a distinguished professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, conducts research that has provided critical insight into air pollution, climate change, stratospheric ozone layer depletion, and the COVID-19 pandemic. He earned his Ph.D. from MIT and completed postdoctoral research at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union. Zhang was recently awarded the Jule Charney Medal by the American Meteorological Society “for exceptional contributions and exemplary leadership in advancing understanding of atmospheric chemical and physical mechanisms influencing air pollution, weather extremes, climate, and public health.”

To learn more about endowed faculty positions and other development-related impact opportunities in the College of Arts and Sciences, contact our development team.