Past Regents' Professors
This list is comprised of past recipients of the Regents' Professor title. The title of Regents' Professor is awarded to a very select group of full-time faculty with an outstanding record of commitment to the University; who have demonstrated true excellence in all three areas of University expectation: instruction, scholarship, and service; and who have demonstrated distinctive impact through their work as a faculty member. (
Ragan M. Callaway (2014)
Ragan M. Callaway is Regents Professor of Ecology at the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1990. He joined the faculty of UM's Division of Biological Sciences in 1993, and is the recipient of numerous grants from the National Science Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the U.S.D.A., the Murdock Foundation, and the National Geographic Research Foundation, to name a few. He was named AAAS Fellow in 2010. To date, the has graduated 10 Ph.D. Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ and has welcomed visiting researchers from around the world, including the Americas (Canada, Mexico, Chile) Europe (Scotland, Hungary, France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain) Asia (Turkey, China, the Republic of Georgia, India), and Australia.
Richard J. Bridges (2011)
Richard J. Bridges is a Regents Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥, where he has been on the faculty of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy since 1993. After completing undergraduate work in Biochemistry at the University of California at Davis, he received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cornell Medical College in 1984 under the guidance of Dr. Alton Meister. Prior to relocating to Montana, he held postdoctoral and faculty positions at the University of California at Irvine. Research in the Bridges lab focuses on the molecular pharmacology of membrane transport proteins that regulate the movement of signaling molecules into and out of cells within the brain and spinal cord. Emerging evidence suggests that these systems, as well as the novel drugs that regulate their activities, are relevant to a wide range of CNS diseases and insults, including: ALS, traumatic injury, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, brain tumors, viral infection, and drug addiction. Bridges’ publications include numerous primary research articles, topical scientific reviews and book chapters, as well as the book Excitatory Amino Acid Transmission in Health and Disease (Oxford Press, 2006). In addition to his own research activities, Bridges has played a key role as a program builder in the biomedical sciences at The Ñý¼§Ö±²¥, serving as a the founding Director of the NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Structural & Functional Neuroscience (2000-2008) and a founding member of both the Montana BioScience Alliance (2004-2011) and the Montana Neuroscience Institute (1998-present).
Steven W. Running (2007)
Steven W. Running received his Ph.D. in Forest Ecology from Colorado State University in 1979. He has been with the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ since 1979, where he is a Regents Professor of Ecology. His primary research interest is the development of global and regional ecosystem biogeochemical models integrating remote sensing with bioclimatology and terrestrial ecology. He is a Team Member for the NASA Earth Observing System, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, and is responsible for the EOS global terrestrial net primary production and evapotranspiration datasets. He has published over 240 scientific articles and two books. Dr. Running recently served on the standing Committee for Earth Studies of the National Research Council and on the federal Interagency Carbon Cycle Science Committee. He also served as a co-chair of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate System Model Land Working Group and as a member of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program Executive Committee, the World Climate Research Program, and the Global Terrestrial Observing System. He currently serves on the advisory NASA Earth Science Subcommittee, and the NOAA Science Advisory Board Climate Working Group. Dr. Running shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 as a chapter Lead Author for the 4th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Dr. Running is an elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and is designated a Highly Cited Researcher by the Institute for Scientific Information. In the popular press, his 2007 essay, "The 5 Stages of Climate Grief," has been widely quoted.
Fred W. Allendorf (2004)
Fred Allendorf is a Regents Professor Emeritus of Biology at the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ and a Professorial Research Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Aarhus in Denmark and Nottingham University in England. He was also a Senior Fulbright Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, and has held positions at the University of California Davis, the University of Oregon, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Western Australia. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a past President of the American Genetic Association and also served as Director of the Population Biology Program of the National Science Foundation. Professor Allendorf has served on the editorial boards of Proceedings of the Royal Society, Conservation Biology, Molecular Ecology, Evolution, Conservation Genetics, Molecular Biology and Evolution, and the Journal of Heredity. His research focuses on the application of population and evolutionary genetics to problems in conservation biology. His book Conservation and the Genetics of Populations (2007), co-authored with Gordon Luikart, provides an understanding of how genetics can be used to conserve species threatened with extinction.
J. Martin Burke (2004)
J. Martin Burke is a Regents Professor of Law at the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ where he has taught since 1977. Professor Burke earned his B.A. from Gonzaga University, his J.D. from The Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ School of Law, and his LL.M. in Taxation from New York University. Professor Burke served as the Dean of The Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ School of Law from 1988 to 1993 and has served as a visiting professor of law at Loyola University Law School (Los Angeles), New York University School of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law, and University of Washington School of Law. Professor Burke has directed the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ Law School's Annual Tax Institute since 1984. He has written extensively on federal tax law and policy and is co-author of a number of tax books, including Taxation of Individual Income, Ninth Edition (LexisNexis 2010), Understanding Federal Income Taxation, Third Edition (LexisNexis 2008) and Modern Estate Planning (LexisNexis 2002). From 1987 to 1992, he served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Review of Taxation of Individuals, a quarterly national tax journal. He has served as a member of the National Advisory Board of LexisNexis and currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the University of Florida Tax Review.
Professor Burke serves on the Council of Legal Education of the American Bar Association (ABA), the accrediting body for U.S. law schools. Prior to being elected to membership on the Council of Legal Education, Professor Burke served as Chair of the ABA Accreditation Committee and Chair of the ABA Standards Review Committee. He has served as Chair and is currently a member of the Professionalism Committee of the State Bar of Montana. In 1994, Governor Marc Racicot appointed him to the Governor's Task Force to Renew Montana Government and he chaired the State Government Committee of the Task Force.
Professor Burke has received numerous teaching and service awards, including The Ñý¼§Ö±²¥'s Distinguished Teaching Award. He was the 1995 recipient of the Robert T. Pantzer Presidential Humanitarian Award for his contribution "to making the University a more humane and open learning environment."
William W. Woessner (2004)
William W. Woessner has been teaching classes in applied hydrogeology at the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ since 1981. He has taught courses in hydrogeology, advanced hydrogeology, groundwater modeling, applied groundwater modeling, surface water-groundwater interaction, and groundwater remediation. He received his B.A. in Geology from the College of Wooster, an M.S. in Geology from the University of Florida, an M.S. in Water Resources Management, and a Ph.D. in Geology (Hydrogeology with a minor in Civil and Environmental Engineering) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From 1978 to 1981 he served as an Assistant Research Professor at the Water Center of the Desert Research Institute, part of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Dr. Woessner has published over 70 professional papers and has presented over 220 professional talks. He has served as the chair for over 70 graduate Ñý¼§Ö±²¥. In 2005, Professor Woessner was awarded the Birdsall Dreiss Lectureship of the Hydrogeology Division of the Geological Society of America and in 2008 was presented the John Hem Excellence in Science and Engineering Award for his contributions to groundwater science by the Association of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers of the National Groundwater Association. Professor Woessner and his co-author, Mary P. Anderson, published Applied Groundwater Modeling in 1992. The text has been translated into both Japanese and Chinese, and is recognized as a foundational text used worldwide. He was named a Fulbright Scholar in 2011, teaching and conducting research at two Universities in Graz, Austria. He has also been recently appointed the Associate Director of the Montana Water Center.
Professor Woessner's service to the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ includes serving five terms on the Faculty Senate and its Executive Committee, appointments to numerous University and department level committees, serving as an undergraduate advisor for over 20 years, appointment as Acting Director of the Center for Riverine Science and Stream Re-naturalization, and serving as department chair.
Albert Borgmann (1996)
Albert Borgmann is a Regents Professor of Philosophy at the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥, where he has taught since 1970. He specializes in philosophy of society and culture. Among his publications are Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life (University of Chicago Press, 1984), Crossing the Postmodern Divide (University of Chicago Press, 1992), Holding On to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium (University of Chicago Press, 1999), Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology (Brazos Press, 2003), and Real American Ethics (University of Chicago Press, 2006).
William Kittredge (1994)
William Kittredge taught for the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ for 29 years as a Professor of English and Creative Writing. Kittredge has held a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford and has received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as two Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Awards for Excellence. He was winner of the Montana Governor's Award for the Arts, co-winner of the Montana Committee for the Humanities Award for Humanist of the Year, and winner of the PEN West Award for non-fiction book of the year. He was co-winner of the Neil Simon Award from American Playhouse for his work on the script for Heartland, co-editor with Annick Smith of The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology, and co-producer of A River Runs Through It. In 1993, he was elected to the American Academy of Achievement, and, in 1994, he was co-winner of the National Endowment for the Humanities' Charles Frankel Award. Kittredge has published essays and articles in over 50 magazines, including Atlantic, Harper's, Esquire, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. His books include two collections of short fiction, The Van Gogh Fields and Other Stories (1979) and We Are Not In This Together (1984); two collections of essays, Owning It All (1987) and Who Owns the West (1996); and a memoir Hole in the Sky (1992). His novel, The Willow Field, was published in 2006 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Paul G. Lauren (1991)
Paul Gordon Lauren is the first person to be named as a Regents Professor at the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥. He is an internationally recognized teacher and scholar in the areas of diplomacy, international relations, and human rights and has published many articles, chapters, and 13 books. His publications include the widely-read Force and Statecraft, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen, and the award-winning Power and Prejudice: The Politics and Diplomacy of Racial Discrimination. In his time at the Ñý¼§Ö±²¥, Professor Lauren has received the Distinguished Scholar Award, the Most Inspirational Teacher Award, the Faculty Advisor Award, the Robert T. Pantzer Presidential Humanitarian Award, and the Award for Distinguished Service to International Education. He has also received the Carnegie Foundation CASE Professor of the Year Award and the Governor's Humanities Award. He served as the founding director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center and as the Mansfield Professor of Ethics and Public Affairs. In addition, he has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar, a Senior Fulbright Specialist, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a Peace Fellow, a Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellow, a visiting professor at other universities in the United States and abroad, and a Distinguished Lecturer for the U.S. Department of State. Professor Lauren has presented lectures throughout the United States and around the world to a wide variety of audiences, including Ñý¼§Ö±²¥ and professors, the general public, activists, analysts, attorneys and judges, professional diplomats and military officers, legislators, and policy makers. He also has delivered invited addresses to the Nobel Peace Institute, the Smithsonian Institution, and the United Nations.