Four University of Colorado at Boulder professors have been named College Professor of Distinction by the College of Arts and Sciences in recognition of their exceptional service, teaching and research or creative work.
Professors Mark Ablowitz of applied mathematics, Robert Schulzinger of history and international affairs, Michael Tooley of philosophy and Thomas Veblen of geography received the new honorary title.
The professors will hold the title during the remainder of their careers in CU-Boulder's College of Arts and Sciences.
"These four professors are highly accomplished scholars with many books, articles and awards among them," said Todd Gleeson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "They are also superb teachers and mentors to young scholars pursuing their own studies, and the college is pleased to publicly honor them."
Ablowitz is considered a pioneer in the field of applied mathematics, and his work in the field is among the most highly cited in the world. He is best known for his landmark contributions to the "inverse scattering transform," or IST, a method used to solve nonlinear wave equations. Mathematicians and physicists have used the IST to gain a better understanding of phenomena such as water waves. Ablowitz joined the CU-Boulder faculty in 1989.
Schulzinger, who directs CU-Boulder's International Affairs program, is an expert on U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy and contemporary U.S. politics. He is the former president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. He is author or co-author of 12 books, including the award-winning "A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975." A sequel, "A Time for Peace: The Legacy of the Vietnam War" will be published later this summer by Oxford University Press. He joined the CU-Boulder faculty in 1977.
Tooley's current research is mainly in the areas of metaphysics and philosophy of religion, where he has worked on questions about the nature of scientific laws, the nature of time and the existence of God. The author of six books and dozens of articles, Tooley has written about the moral issues raised by abortion, euthanasia and cloning. He joined the CU-Boulder faculty in 1992.
Veblen studies forest ecosystems in Argentina, Chile and Colorado, including the effects of fires and insect outbreaks on Colorado forests. He is an expert on the history of wildfires and fire ecology in the western United States and South America, using tree rings to understand the relationships between climate variation and wildfires. The National Science Foundation, U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service support his work. He joined the CU-Boulder faculty in 1981.