Jayaswal, Reeder Named Distinguished Professors

Illinois State University President Al Bowman has appointed Radheshyam Jayaswal, Biological Sciences, and Glenn Reeder, Psychology, as Distinguished Professors at Illinois State effective Aug. 16, 2008.

The Distinguished Professor designation allows the University to honor faculty members of distinction and to demonstrate to the broader community that excellence is the foundation of the University.  Among the criteria for appointment are achieving national recognition for scholarly research, creative production or leadership in creative or scholarly activities.  In addition, candidates must have been clearly identified by students, colleagues, or external agencies as an outstanding teacher or must have contributed significant public service in accord with his or her academic discipline.

Distinguished Professors are invited to deliver one public lecture or presentation on a topic of their choosing, receive a $1,000 budget per annum in support of activities as a Distinguished Professor and continue to hold the title throughout their service to Illinois State.

Jayaswal, an Illinois State faculty member since 1988, has made significant research contributions in an area of tremendous practical importance.  He is an internationally recognized scholar, outstanding in his development of students, and has made significant service contributions to the university and the profession.

Jayaswal is an exceptionally productive scholar whose research contributions in microbiology have attracted international distinction for Illinois State University.  Paul Williams of the University of Nottingham indicates that Professor Jayaswal “is well known internationally for his research on the molecular genetics of antibiotic resistance, metal homeostasis and pathogenicity in Staphylococcus aureus” and describes the significance of his “excellent innovative work in this field.” 

Saleem Khan of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine explains that Professor Jayaswal’s laboratory at ISU “was the first to clone and characterize the S. Aureus gene encoding and autolysin” and describes a subsequent series of “significant contributions” with “very important” implications in public health.  According to Bernard Weisblum of the University of Wisconsin, Jayaswal’s studies “are important conceptually, as well as practically in connection with emerging resistance of bacterial infections to nearly all antibiotics currently in use.” 

Jayaswal’s research agenda has yielded an impressive number of publications including widely-cited works in the Journal of Bacteriology, Microbiology, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Molecular Microbiology, and Applied and Environmental Microbiology.  The continuous nature of external funding in support of Jayaswal’s research program over 20 years serves as an essential indicator of his recognized leadership in the field.  His work at Illinois State has been supported with over $1.5 million in extramural funding from competitive sources including the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association and industry grants.

Doctoral students under Jayaswal’s supervision have moved on to postdoctoral positions at such prestigious institutions as the University of Chicago and Stanford University.  Master’s students working in his laboratory have enjoyed an outstanding record of professional accomplishment, and one of Jayaswal’s international peers extols the “crucial importance” of the ISU programs. 

Jayaswal has also provided significant contributions in service to the university and to his discipline, including valuable efforts on a number of curriculum development projects such as the M.S. Sequence in Biotechnology and the Ph.D. Sequence in Molecular and Cell Biology.  He has served on the University Curriculum Committee, College Faculty Status Committee, Panel of Ten and Department Faculty Status Committee.  Jayaswal has provided service as a reviewer for numerous academic journals and on grant review panels for a variety of funding organizations including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Science Foundation of Ireland.    

Reeder, who joined the Illinois State faculty in 1977, has earned a distinguished reputation around the world for his scholarship in social psychology.  He is a scholar of international renown, a dedicated and dynamic teacher and a major contributor to the university and the profession.

Stephen Read of the University of Southern California writes that Reeder is “very well known both nationally and internationally, and his work has had a major, consistent impact in social psychology.”  Guido Peeters of Catholic University of Leuven, former Editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology, stresses “the high status that European social psychologists have accorded to Glenn Reeder.” David Trafimow of New Mexico State University argues that “his contributions have had a profound effect on the development of social psychology,” and Ralph Erber of DePaul University calls him “one of the intellectual leaders of our field.” 

In the past 30 years, Reeder has produced some of the most influential work in his field, external grant awards from the National Science Foundation and the National Centers for Disease Control, and a continuous flow of publications in prestigious journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and Psychological Review.  He has served in prestigious invited positions including Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and Faculty of the Leuven/Louvain post-graduate Summer School in Belgium.

Students have been the primary beneficiaries of Reeder’s teaching career.  Departmental colleagues note the wide range of undergraduate and graduate level courses he covers and praise the wealth of knowledge and effective teaching skill he brings to the classroom.  He has been lauded for being a dedicated exponent of active learning and for insisting that students in all of his classes write as part of their learning. 

Reeder believes the “strongest and most enduring impact on students occurs at the individual level.”  He spends a significant amount of time one-on-one with students in all of his courses and regularly takes on numerous independent studies.  He has supervised and mentored dozens of graduate students, helping them to present their research at conferences and assisting them toward further studies and career goals. 

Many of Reeder’s former students have gone on to complete doctorates at schools like Northwestern University, University of Wisconsin, University of North Carolina, and Humboldt University in Germany and have enjoyed subsequent success in their own academic careers.