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Gary Westfall

 Brad Sherrill

 Brad Sherril and Gary Westfall
earn University Distinguished Professor title

from article by Kristin K. Anderson
MSU Today, June 27, 2003

Brad Sherrill and Gary Westfall were among the ten MSU professors that have been named University Distinguished Professors in recognition of their achievements in the classroom, laboratory and community. The designations, recommended by Interim President Lou Anna K. Simon, were approved by the MSU Board of Trustees on June 27, 2003.

The title of University Distinguished Professor is among the highest honors that can be bestowed on a faculty member by the university. Those selected for the title have been recognized nationally and usually internationally for the importance of their teaching, research and public service achievements.

Individuals holding the professorship will receive, in addition to their salary, a stipend of $5,000 per year for five years to support professional activities.

The 10 individuals bring to 84 the number of faculty members who have been named a University Distinguished Professor since the designation was established by the university and approved by the MSU Board of Trustees in 1989.

• Bradley M. Sherrill, Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Natural Science; and National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. Sherrill studies the nuclear reactions that take place in various astrophysical environments. He investigates radioactive nuclei that play a key role in supernovae explosions, with the goal of better understanding nuclear physics' contributions to cataclysmic events.
  

• Gary D. Westfall, Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Natural Science; and National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. His work spans the entire field of heavy ion physics. His discovery of the disappearance of flow has been one of the most significant research results to emerge from the Cyclotron Laboratory, leading to new insight into the nuclear equation of state.

Gary and Brad join Walter Benenson and C. Konrad Gelbke to bring the number of University Distinguished Professors to four in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. In addition, Sam Austin, Henry Blosser, Ed Kashy, and Mike Thorpe are all University Distinguished Professor Emeriti.