Two earn highest promotion to Regents professor

PULLMAN, Wash. – Two Washington State University faculty members have been promoted to Regents professor. The promotion honors the highest level of international distinction in the discipline that raises university standards through teaching, scholarship and public service.
The employees will receive recognition along with other annual award winning faculty and staff at the Celebrating Excellence Banquet March 29, part of the annual Showcase celebration of WSU excellence and achievement.
Reservations for the banquet are being accepted through March 20 at http://showcase.wsu.edu.
  
The Regents professor honorees are:
 
McElwain
Terry F. McElwain, associate director and professor, Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, and executive director, Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. He has been a faculty member at WSU since 1989.
 
His research explores global control of infectious diseases. He is involved in development, validation and application of molecular techniques for diagnosis and is co-inventor on 12 patents or licensing agreements.
 
McElwain has improved the standards of animal health laboratories across the country. He played a vital role in formation of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, which permits rapid recognition of animal health problems with potential international consequences. 
 
He has mentored veterinary students, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in the development of their laboratory skills and research. 
 
He received WSU’s Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Outreach and Engagement in 2008-09 and directs WSU’s Animal Health Research Center.
 
McElwain is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, a member of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network and Laboratory Response Network for Bioterrorism, and a member of the Board of Directors of the World Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians.
 
Rosa
Eugene A. Rosa, professor, Department of Sociology, and Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of Natural Resource and Environmental Policy in the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service. A faculty member at WSU since 1978, he passed away in early March from lung cancer.
He was a renowned environmental scholar and international leader in work assessing how countries attempt to resolve social risk associated with environmental change, such as global warming. His research is widely published in books, monographs and articles in leading journals. The work has changed how people view the consequences of environmental impacts.
 
Rosa’s co-authored book, “Risk, Uncertainty, and Rational Action,” received the 2000-02 Outstanding Publication Award from a section of the American Sociological Association. His co-edited book, “Human Footprints on the Global Environment: Threats to Sustainability,” received the 2010 Gerald L. Young Distinguished Scholarly Book Award of the Society for Human Ecology.
 
In 2003, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He delivered the WSU Distinguished Faculty Address in 2007.
 
He served on a standing committee for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)/National Research Council (NRC), on the NRC/NAS Nuclear Radiation Study Board, and on the NRC/NAS Committee on the Staging of Nuclear Repositories.
 
In addition to the March 29 banquet, WSU Showcase includes the Distinguished Faculty Address (March 28); the Academic Showcase display of faculty, staff and student work (March 29); and SURCA, the Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (March 29).