Regents' Professors
The title “Regents’ Professor” is the highest faculty honor awarded at Arizona State University. It is conferred on ASU faculty who have made pioneering contributions in their areas of expertise, who have achieved a sustained level of distinction, and who enjoy national and international recognition for these accomplishments.
Nomination Form (Word)
Regents' Professors, 2009
Jane Buikstra
School of Human Evolution and Social Change
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Jane Buikstra, professor of archaeology, single-handedly created the discipline, bioarchaeology, which is now taught widely in the U.S. and in many other countries. Through her vision and practice of this synthetic field, she has enriched our archaeological knowledge of past peoples with that of forensics, pathology, medicine, population studies, bio-geochemistry and genetics. She and her colleagues developed the Center for American Archaeology into the premier research and field teaching program in the U.S. There, many new techniques of excavation, geophysical surface survey, artifact analysis, skeleton study, paleoethnobotany, zooarchaeology, malacology, cultural and natural environmental reconstruction, and innovative approaches to funding were first designed before they spread over much of the Western world.
Professor Buikstra has opened a number of completely new windows into the past, greatly expanding archaeologists’ conceptual and methodological tool kit. Those achievements are essential for our modern understanding of the relationship between people, their environment, and their health, and also vastly enrich our understanding of the social dynamics, beliefs, diet, funerary practices, and many other aspects of the everyday lives of past peoples. She has directly mentored more than 40 doctoral students in the fields of bioarchaeology and physical anthropology, and her students are now professors, themselves. Through the bioarchaeology field schools she has taught for three decades, Professor Buikstra has trained literally hundreds of now professional archaeologists, bioarchaeologists and physical anthropologists in the academic, business and public sectors, and has introduced thousands of high school students to the past and the diverse nature of humanity.
Her scholarly impact on the discipline of anthropology and beyond was recognized early through her election to the National Academy of Sciences only 15 years after gaining her doctorate. Last year, she received the Charles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the highest honor the world's leading association of physical anthropologists bestows upon its members.
James Elser
School of Life Sciences
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
James Elser, professor of ecology, is a pioneer in the development and testing of the theory of ecological stoichiometry. Stoichiometry deals with ratios of multiple resources (such as nutrient elements) as opposed to elements considered one at a time. His work has led to a better understanding of nutrient limitation, trophic dynamics, biogeochemical cycling, and the linkages between evolutionary and ecosystem processes in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. This work is marked by expansive applications of these principles from the molecular level in individual cells to regional and global ecosystems. While his work is centered in ecology, he has considered the application of stoichiometric principles to human nutrition and to the development of cancer. Professor Elser’s work has an impact on the scientific world well beyond the aquatic sciences and increasingly involves terrestrial studies. Importantly, the concept of ecological stoichiometry has been adopted as a powerful lens for the study of a variety of phenomena, from behavioral ecology to soil ecology and including an explicit blending of mechanistic (functional, biochemical) and evolutionary approaches.
Professor Elser has been a Fulbright Scholar, a recipient of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography’s Lindeman Award. He has excelled in teaching at advanced levels, but his shining achievement is his teaching of Biology 100. This class reaches 800 students per semester and is the largest course on the ASU at the Tempe campus. He has welcomed the challenge of teaching this course for more than 16 years, and he has shown leadership in pedagogical innovation, course revision and course structuring to provide small-course advantages nested in a mega-course setting.
Bruce Rittmann
School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment
Biodesign Institute
Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering
Bruce Rittmann, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology, is a pioneer in research aimed at developing microbiological systems that capture renewable resources and minimize environmental pollution. His work, which combines engineering with microbiology and chemistry, can be used to reclaim polluted water and generate energy from waste substances. He is acclaimed for his development of biofilm fundamentals, and for contributing to their widespread use in the cleanup of contaminated waters, soils and ecosystems. His research combines engineering with microbiology, biochemistry, geochemistry and microbial ecology to address fundamental and applied issues in the biological treatment of waters and wastewater, the bioremediation of contaminated aquifers and soils, and the recovery of energy from waste materials.
Professor Rittmann also explores microbial fuel cells, which utilize organic materials in water to directly generate electricity. Using microorganisms as the catalyzing agents and organic matter in food and waste as the fuel, this process would create a renewable energy source. This microbial fuel cell captures the energy resource in organic wastes while eliminating them as water pollutants. Professor Rittmann is an engaging and approachable mentor, and his textbook is used by universities around the world to educate students about the ways in which microorganisms can be used to improve environmental quality.
Professor Rittman was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004 and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received the Clarke Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Water Science and Technology and is a winner of the Huber Research Prize from American Society of Civil Engineers.
Michael J. Saks
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
Michael J. Saks, professor of law, is recognized for his contributions to the field of behavioral science and law. His work, which often challenges common wisdom in the legal policy arena, spans a remarkable range of phenomena, including decision heuristics and the trial process, sentencing, the litigation system, iatrogenic injury, scientific and other expert evidence in the law, the relative impact of jury selection and evidence, children's competence to consent to medical procedures, legal policy regarding organ and tissue transplantation, law reform and broader issues of accuracy in legal decision-making. Professor Saks’ incisive and informative writings are influential among other academics, and often are cited in federal and state court opinions across the U.S. His research on jury size was among the first and most methodologically sound on the issue. He was the first to integrate the body of research on jury composition, and his conclusions (which were contrary to the wisdom of the time) have become the widely-accepted view on the subject.
As a social psychologist, Professor Saks has contributed to legal education by teaching law students and professors to understand and critically evaluate empirical claims and empirical research. He frequently teaches a course on the law's use of empirical social science data that many students say is the most eye-opening and "best" course they took in law school. He has taught innovative seminars in which students draft model legislation concerning matters of public and professional concern. His courses and seminars typically are interdisciplinary and are open to law, psychology and other graduate students.
Professor Saks’ works have been frequently cited, by U.S. federal district and circuit courts, and even in Supreme Court opinions. He has contributed broadly to the profession, including serving as president of his national association.
Dieter K. Schroder
Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering
Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering
Dieter K. Schroder, professor of electrical engineering, is an internationally recognized leader in the field of research in semicondoctor devices. His work in defects in semiconductors vaulted him into international recognition, as this work created the leading understanding of the role of these defects in semiconductor device operation. His work is seminal in the fields of semiconductor materials and device characterization, including electrical/lifetime measurements, low power electronics, device modeling and metal-oxide-silicon devices. His books on metal-oxide-silicon devices, and semiconductor materials and devices, are acclaimed and utilized worldwide.
Professor Schroder's courses are among the most popular in the department. He is a dedicated teacher and mentor, with more than 80 classes taught at ASU since 1981, many of them large sections. He is recognized professionally for his development of short courses in electronic imaging, charge-coupled devices, semiconductor characterization, and advanced metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors, and is responsible for the development of a semiconductor research center which currently consists of 25 faculty members and 75 graduate students. He has graduated and mentored more than 60 master's students and 32 doctoral students, and his extensive industry experience strengthens his educational impact, as well as his university research.
He has five patents and has received over 10 million dollars in research funding. Professor Schroder received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers van der Ziel Award for a Distinguished Career in Education and Research.