March 30, 2006

Faculty honors

John Disterhoft, professor of physiology, has been named Ernest J. and Hattie H. Magerstadt Memorial Research Professor.

Disterhoft’s areas of research include the aging brain, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia including vascular causes. He currently is analyzing the neurobiology of associative learning in the mammalian brain at cellular and systems levels, using both in vivo and in vitro techniques.

His program focuses on characterizing the ways in which neurons store new information during associative learning, including the cellular mechanisms of altered learning in aging using a combination of behavioral and biophysical approaches.

Disterhoft has received many other honors throughout his career, including a MERIT Award from the National Institute on Aging (1999-2009). He is also a member of several professional societies, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association and the Society for Neuroscience.

He is on the editorial board of numerous journals, including the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Neuroscience Research, Trends in Neuroscience, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and Behavioral Neuroscience.

Alice Eagley, professor of psychology, has been named the first James Padilla Professor in Arts and Sciences.

Eagley is a social psychologist whose research focuses on two main areas: the psychology of attitudes and the psychology of gender. She currently is working on a book about gender’s effect on leadership and an analysis of stereotypes of leaders and managers.

Two major projects, one on heroism of women and men and the other on gender gaps in sociopolitical attitudes, culminated this year in published articles in American Psychologist and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. She is the editor or author of numerous articles, which appear in publications including the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Psychological Review, Psychology of Women Quarterly and American Psychologist.

Lee Epstein, visiting law professor, has been named Beatrice Kuhn Professor.

Epstein is currently the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of Political Science and professor of law at Washington University and a Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. She served as the Jack N. Pritzker Distinguished Visiting Professor at Northwestern’s School of Law during fall 2005 and will be joining Northwestern’s faculty in the fall of 2006.

The recipient of numerous grants from the National Science Foundation for her work on judicial politics, she currently is working on the project “Strategic Defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court,” examining the circumstances leading lower courts to comply with/defy higher courts.

She is working with the papers of Justice Harry Blackmun for a book on agenda setting in the U.S. Supreme Court.

She teaches courses on constitutional courts, constitutional law, defendants’ rights, law and social change, research design and methods and the Supreme Court.

John Kessler, M.D., Benjamin and Virginia T. Boshes Professor of Neurology, has been named the first Ken and Ruth Davee Professor in Stem Cell Biology.

Kessler’s research focuses on the biology of embryonic stem cells and neural stem cells. His lab explores how stem cells can be given the right molecular signals to transform them into neural stem cells. The goal of this research is to devise techniques to regenerate the spinal cord after injury and brain cells after stroke.

In the spinal cord regeneration project, he is working with Northwestern’s Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine to combine nanotechnology with stem cell biology. Kessler is investigating nanofibers that promote healing and could potentially be used to trigger stem cells to become spinal neurons or specific organ cells.

Kessler’s research is supported by four multi-year National Institutes of Health grants. He has co-authored more than 170 articles, which appeared in publications including Development, Human Genetics, the Journal of Medical Genetics, Neurology and Science.

Chung-Chieh Lee, professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been named SBC Research Professor.

Lee’s research includes many subjects in communication systems, networking and computer science, with his many research contributions covering the areas of statistical signal processing, wireless data network protocol design, network modeling and performance evaluation, packet scheduling and QoS control, process scheduling, computer algorithm design and complexity analysis, automated document recognition and robust speaker verification.

Lee has published more than 150 technical articles in these fields, and his research programs have been sponsored by various organizations including the National Science Foundation, the Army Research Office, Ameritech, Motorola, ARDIS, 3COM, Bell Northern Research, BellCore, US West, AT&T, Bell & Howell, AISI and Chrysler.

Lee, who joined Northwestern in 1980, was instrumental in establishing the Master of Information Technology program in 1996, which combines the principles of engineering and business.

Leonard Rubinowitz, professor of law, has been named the Harry B. Reese Teaching Professor through Aug. 31.

Rubinowitz’s research focuses on race both historically and currently as it pertains to the implications of urban development programs. Through his research, he collaborates with both lawyers and activists who focus on racial discrimination.

He teaches law as it pertains to civil rights, urban housing and community development, land use, public interest and social change.

Rubinowitz has published numerous articles, appearing in Northwestern Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Urban Law Annual, National Law Journal and Urban Review. He also has written several books, including “Low-Income Housing: Suburban Strategies,” “Decentralizing Urban Policy: Case Studies in Community Development,” and “Crossing the Color and Class Lines: From Public Housing to White Suburbia.” His upcoming book explores the impact of the landmark public housing desegregation case Gautreaux vs. Chicago Housing Authority.

Before joining Northwestern in 1972, Rubinowitz served as the special assistant to the regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.