UF Research Foundation names 2023 Professors
April 19, 2023 — 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 Epidemiology
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
Associate 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
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