Eight faculty named to WARF professorships

Eight members of the UW–Madison faculty have been appointed to Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation named professorships in 2012.

The appointments, which include $75,000 in research support from WARF during five years, are:

—John F. Doebley, George Wells Beadle Professor of Genetics, who works with maize in an effort to understand the way genes give rise to new physical traits in plants;

—Mark D. Ediger, Hyuk Yu Professor of Chemistry, who examines the way molecular motion influences the properties of materials such as polymers and glasses;

—Charles Engel, Rudiger Dornbusch Professor of Economics, who focuses on the behavior of foreign exchange rates, monetary and exchange rate policy, and the effects of exchange rates on consumer prices;

—Maryellen MacDonald, Donald P. Hayes Professor of Psychology, who explores human language and the role experience and working memory play in language comprehension;

—Brenda Gayle Plummer, Merze Tate Professor of History, who studies race and international affairs and modern African American and Caribbean history — especially Haiti.

—James B. Rawlings, W. Harmon Ray Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, who has advanced the use of computer models to control chemical processes in industrial plants;

—Ivan Rayment, Michael G. Rossman Professor of Biochemistry, who uses X-ray crystallography to study the relationship between the structure of large proteins and their function;

—Donald M. Waller, John T. Curtis Professor of Botany, who explores long-term ecological change associated with invasive plants and deer; and

—David Weimer, Edwin E. Witte Professor of Political Economy, who examines health policy and institutional design, applying cost-benefit analyses to government programs.