UF Research Foundation names 2023 Professors

The University of Florida Research Foundation has named 34 of the university’s most productive and promising faculty members as UFRF Professors for 2023.

“This recognition goes to faculty who have a distinguished current record of research and a strong research agenda that is likely to lead to continuing distinction in their fields,” said David Norton, UF’s vice president for research. “Based on the more than 700 UF faculty recognized over the past 26 years, we can expect significant research discoveries, scholarship and technology transfer from this group in the future.”

The UFRF Professors were recommended by their college deans based on nominations from their department chairs, a personal statement and an evaluation of their recent research accomplishments as evidenced by publications in scholarly journals, external funding, honors and awards, development of intellectual property and other measures appropriate to their field of expertise.

The three-year award includes a $5,000 annual salary supplement and a one-time $3,000 grant. The professorships are funded from the university’s share of royalty and licensing income on UF-generated products.

The program was paused in 2020 due to financial uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, so UF Research will recognize the 2020 and 2023 UFRF Professors during an event in the fall.

This year’s UFRF Professors are listed below:
 
College of the Arts

Jasmin Arakawa
Associate Professor of Piano
 
Warrington College of Business

Liangfei Qiu
Associate Professor of Business
 
College of Journalism and Communications

Yu-Hao Lee
Associate Professor of Media Production, Management, and Technology
 
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
 
Paul Ortiz
Professor of History
 
Duncan Purves
Associate Professor of Philosophy
 
Derek Cummings
Professor of Biology
 
Jonathan Martin
Professor of Geology
 
Jason Blackburn
Professor of Geography
 
Lori Knackstedt
Associate Professor of Psychology
 
College of Medicine
 
Eric Wang
Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
 
Philip Efron
Professor of Surgery
 
Matthew E. Merritt
Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
 
Jada Lewis 
Professor of Neuroscience
 
Carol Mathews
Professor of Psychiatry
 
College of Design, Construction and Planning
 
Timothy Murtha
Professor of Landscape Architecture
 
College of Dentistry
 
José Lemos
Associate Professor of Oral Biology
 
College of Education
 
Joni Williams Splett
Associate Professor of School Psychology
 
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
 
Sanjay Ranka
Distinguished Professor of Computer & Information Science & Engineering
 
Parisa Rashidi
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
 
Bala Balachandar
Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
 
Florida Museum of Natural History
 
David Blackburn
Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles
 
College of Health and Human Performance
 
Rachael Seidler
Professor of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology
 
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
 
Jose Dubeux
Professor of Agronomy
 
Zhifeng Gao
Professor of Food and Resource Economics
 
Erica Goss
Associate Professor of Plant Pathology
 
KC Jeong
Associate Professor of Animal Sciences
 
Jawwad Qureshi
Associate Professor of Entomology and Nematology
 
Yu Wang
Associate Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition
 
Levin College of Law

David Hasen
Professor of Law
 
College of Nursing

Leslie Parker
Professor of Nursing
 
College of Pharmacy

Stephan Schmidt
Professor of Pharmaceutics
 
College of Public Health and Health Professions

Samuel Wu
Professor of Biostatistics
 
Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology

Katrin Karbstein
Professor of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology
 
College of Veterinary Medicine

Liang Zhou
Professor of Infectious Diseases and Immunology

Joseph Kays April 19, 2023