Six ˿Ƶ University faculty achieve SUNY distinguished professor status
Title reserved for those who have achieved national or international prominence in their discipline
Six ˿Ƶ University faculty members have been named distinguished professors, the highest rank awarded by the State University of New York.
The title is reserved for those who have exemplary reputations within their disciplines and who have achieved national or international prominence. Three of the professors are from Harpur College of Arts and Sciences, two from the College of Community and Public Affairs, and one from the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Currently, 38 other active ˿Ƶ faculty hold the titles of distinguished, distinguished teaching or distinguished service professor, as well as 68 professors emeritus throughout the University’s history.
“On behalf of the entire University community, I want to share my congratulations to the faculty who have attained a distinguished title from SUNY,” said President Harvey Stenger. “This rank signifies that each of these individuals has accomplished much in their careers, in research and scholarship, service to the University, and lasting and meaningful dedication to students. I want to thank these six distinguished professors for representing ˿Ƶ so well.”
“The most recent inductees into SUNY’s distinguished ranks are an impressive and accomplished group of faculty,” said Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Donald Hall. “I’m also proud to see that these honorees represent so many different academic disciplines across our campus, which speaks to the talent, the passion and the skill that is present in the University’s various departments. The ˿Ƶ community is fortunate to have these individuals with us, and this distinguished recognition is much deserved for each of them.”
College of Community and Public Affairs
Laura R. Bronstein
Distinguished Professor of Social Work
Bronstein joined ˿Ƶ University in 1999 after a career as a practicing social worker. Since that time, she has played a significant role in shaping CCPA, which she currently leads as dean.
Bronstein has published more than 70 peer-reviewed research articles, chapters, and two books; led teams awarded more than $20 million in federal, state and foundation grants; and has received numerous national and local awards. She has an international reputation for her research on collaboration, including having created the widely used Index for Interdisciplinary Collaboration.
Most recently, Bronstein has built ˿Ƶ University’s Center for Community Schools into a nationally and internationally renowned entity, and is currently leading its adaptation across SUNY’s 64 campuses and beyond. In 2024, she was cited among the top 2% of scholars in her field in the world by the Stanford World Scientist and University Rankings.
“I am truly humbled to join the ranks of SUNY’s Distinguished Professors. I have spent my entire academic career at ˿Ƶ and have immense gratitude for the support of the administration, my colleagues, students and collaborators near and far that enhance my work and make it possible,” she said.
Adam Laats
Distinguished Professor of Education and History
After spending a decade teaching middle and high school students in Milwaukee, Laats earned his doctorate in U.S. History at the University of Wisconsin — Madison, where he studied the cultural battles over race, religion and science in American schools.
A sought-after expert in the controversies that shape American education, his books include Mr. Lancaster’s System: The Failed Reform that Launched America’s Public Schools (2024), Creationism USA (2020), Fundamentalist U: Keeping the Faith in American Higher Education (2018), Teaching Evolution in a Creation Nation (2016), The Other School Reformers: Conservatism Activism in American Education (2015), and Fundamentalism and Education in the Scopes Era: God, Darwin, and the Roots of America’s Culture Wars (2010).
His commentary has appeared in wide-ranging publications, including Time, Newsweek, Slate, The Atlantic, The Washington Post and The Chronicle of Higher Education. In 2022, he received the National Center for Science Education’s prestigious Friend of Darwin award, an honor he shares with figures such as Niles Eldredge, an American biologist and paleontologist who proposed the theory of punctuated equilibrium with Stephen Jay Gould; Richard B. Katskee, vice president and legal director at Americans United for Separation of Church and State; and Carl Zimmer, award-winning New York Times columnist and author of 14 books.
“I feel very honored to be part of ˿Ƶ University and the SUNY system. For me, it’s personal. Like so many people before and after him, my father came to this country with nothing. New York welcomed him with tuition-free public schools and public college. It made my family’s American dream possible,” Laats said. “New York knows there is no better investment than world-class education for all of its residents, and I’m happy to be able to do my part to make it happen.”
Harpur College
Jennifer Gillis Mattson
Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology
A psychological scientist dedicated to improving the lives of autistic and neurodivergent individuals, Gillis Mattson has spent her career disseminating science, expanding equitable access to evidence-based practices, and upholding respect for the dignity, rights and diversity of all people.
She holds a courtesy professorship in ˿Ƶ’s School of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering and is a visiting professor of psychology at CHRIST University in Bengaluru, India.
On the ˿Ƶ campus, she is the co-director for the Institute for Child Development (ICD), a national and international leader in serving children diagnosed with autism, their families and their communities. A locus for autism-related research, the Institute has developed some of the best practices for diagnosing and providing services to young children with autism in the State of New York and beyond.
Gillis Mattson also co-directs the Centre for Neurodiversity Research and Innovation at India’s CHRIST University, and recently received the ˿Ƶ University Award for Excellence in International Education. Her research is routinely informed by autistic voices and caregiver input. It includes service provider and parent training, support and professional development, as well as dissemination and adaptation of evidence-based practices that benefit autistic individuals in limited-resource settings.
“I am honored to join the ranks of distinguished faculty at ˿Ƶ University. Over the years, my journey has been enriched and supported by an extraordinary community on the University campus,” she said. “Of special importance is the collaboration, inspiration and support found in the work I do with students and colleagues at the Institute for Child Development.”
Ruth M. Van Dyke
Distinguished Professor of Anthropology
Archaeologist Ruth M. Van Dyke is a renowned scholar of the ancient Pueblo peoples of southwest North America, focusing particularly on Chaco Canyon and the Four Corners region.
Van Dyke works collaboratively with Pueblo and Diné descendant communities to help study and protect their ancient and historic ancestral homes. Her research has been transformative for the study of archaeological landscapes; she employs phenomenological and spatial methods to investigate the intersections of memory, materiality, and ideology.
Van Dyke has written more than 50 articles and book chapters, and she is author or editor of six books, including Archaeologies of Memory (20030, The Chaco Experience (2007), The Chaco Additions Survey (2015), Subjects and Narratives in Archaeology (2015), and Practicing Materiality (2015). Her most recent co-edited book, The Greater Chaco Landscape: Ancestors, Scholarship, and Advocacy (2021), won the 2021 American Anthropological Association Engaged Scholarship Award and the 2022 Society for American Archaeology Popular Book Award.
Van Dyke is currently president of the Archaeology Division of the American Anthropological Association. She also directs a historical archaeology project investigating identity and memory in 19th-century Texas, and she is at work on an interdisciplinary study of the materiality of pilgrimage.
“I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the colleagues who nominated and supported me for this promotion,” she said. “It’s our collegial environment that helps make SUNY such a rewarding place to work.”
Chuan-Jian Zhong
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry
A chemist and materials scientist, Zhong develops advanced nanomaterials, sensors and catalysts for use in the energy, environmental and healthcare sectors.
Zhong has used sensors — super-small devices that can detect external molecules — to detect the chemicals in air pollution, as well as health conditions such as diabetes and lung cancer from the human breath. He has also designed catalysts — ultrasmall particles that can speed up chemical reactions — to reduce car emissions, or power vehicles with zero emissions.
Co-founder of three startup companies, Zhong has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, including two books, and is considered one of the world’s most cited researchers for career-long impact by Elsevier.
He holds multiple U.S. and international patents and was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2019, the highest professional distinction for academic inventors. He has also received numerous other awards, including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and 3M Faculty Research Award, and has been named a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
“I am deeply grateful for this recognition, and I would like to thank my colleagues, students, research collaborators, and the administration for their unwavering support and valuable contributions. I look forward to our continued collaborations,” Zhong said.
Watson College
Douglas H. Summerville
Distinguished Teaching Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
An electrical engineer, Summerville has authored more than 50 journal and conference papers and two textbooks on embedded systems design. His research and teaching interests include microcontroller systems design, digital systems design, computer and network security, covert channels, and tamper detection.
He has received two State University of New York Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Faculty Service and Teaching, the ˿Ƶ University Council/Foundation Award for Service to the University, and several teaching awards.
Summerville is also a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Society for Engineering Education.
“I was thrilled when I received the news. It is an honor to be named a Distinguished Teaching Professor,” he said. “I feel especially fortunate to be surrounded by outstanding students, faculty and staff at a university that still values quality education. I owe so much to my wonderful colleagues, who share a passion for teaching, and for the countless students who have shaped the way I think about it. I have learned a lot from both.”