IU President Michael A. McRobbie presents the first parchment -- an official university document -- during the symposium to Distinguished Professor Christopher Beckwith, who is a researcher in Central Eurasian studies in the School of Global and International Studies. Beckwith is one of nine Indiana University scholars and researchers who have been promoted to distinguished professor, the highest academic rank the university bestows upon faculty. The symposium was held to recognize the honored professors, who presented their latest research.Distinguished Professor Christopher Beckwith presents his latest research. A teacher at IU for more than 41 years, he has taught and developed 48 distinct courses and is one of the most prolific and versatile researchers in the field of Central Eurasian studies.IU President Michael A. McRobbie welcomes Distinguished Professor of Biology Yves V. Brun to the stage to present him with his parchment.Distinguished Professor of Biology Yves V. Brun gives his presentation. Brun, the Clyde Culbertson Professor of Biology in the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is internationally recognized for his innovative contributions to several substantial areas of microbiology, including how bacteria attach to surfaces, how they reproduce, and how their shape is determined and has evolved.IU President Michael A. McRobbie presents Lynda Delph with her parchment. Delph, a professor and section associate chair for the Evolution, Ecology and Behavior Program in the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is recognized as one of the top evolutionary biologists in the world. Distinguished Professor Lynda Delph delivers her remarks with a slideshow of plants in the background. Delph has made an important contribution to the field through her empirical work on plants, showing that various forms of selection -- such as sexual, fecundity and viability -- operate differently on males and females, leading to sexual dimorphism in morphology, life history and physiology.IU President Michael A. McRobbie welcomes Robert Goldstone to the stage to receive his parchment. Goldstone, the Chancellor's Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, is one of the world's premier cognitive psychology researchers.IU President Michael A. McRobbie presents Randy Long, Distinguished Professor of Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design in the School of Art and Design, with her parchment. She has been internationally recognized as a metalsmith, with more than 300 exhibitions and 24 books that include her work.Distinguished Professor of Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design Randy Long delivers her remarks. Her groundbreaking work in the 1980s with rediscovered techniques of marriage of metals pushed the limits of what was being created and placed form, sculptural considerations and concept over utility.IU President Michael A. McRobbie presents Anantha Shekhar with his parchment. Shekhar, the August M. Watanabe Professor of Medical Research at the IU School of Medicine, has been a leading researcher in the mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric disorders and in the field of translational medicine.Distinguished Professor Anantha Shekhar presents his research. Shekhar’s work has been supported by over $75 million in National Institutes of Health funds and more than $40 million in nonfederal grants, in addition to over $300 million in university, local, corporate and philanthropic partnership initiatives. Last year, he was named the principal investigator of the Precision Health Initiative, which was the first recipient of funding from the IU Grand Challenges Program.IU President Michael A. McRobbie presents the parchment to Distinguished Professor of Music Andre Watts, who is recognized around the globe as a musical genius. He won a Grammy Award in 1964 for most promising new classical recording artist, and his 1976 recital on PBS' "Live From Lincoln Center" was the first full-length recital broadcast nationally in the history of television.Distinguished Professor Andre Watts, the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music in the Department of Piano in the Jacobs School of Music, delivers his remarks. At age 26, he was the youngest person to receive an honorary doctorate from Yale University, and in 2011 he received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama.IU President Michael A. McRobbie delivers closing remarks and congratulates the seven faculty members who presented at the symposium in Bloomington. A second symposium will be held for two more faculty members at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.Faculty and their guests mingle in Presidents Hall after the symposium, inside Franklin Hall on the IU Bloomington campus.Following the symposium, IU President Michael A. McRobbie talks to Distinguished Professor of Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design Randy Long, center, and Vice President Emeritus of International Affairs and Special Advisor to the President of IU Patrick O’Meara, right.
