Faculty members nominated for 2009 'Distinguished Professor' title

Three professors, two from the University of Colorado Denver and one from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, have been nominated for this year's prestigious "Distinguished Professor" title.

The candidates are UC Denver Professors William P. Arend, M.D., and John Cambier, Ph.D., and UCCS Professor Donald Klingner, Ph.D. As deemed by their peers, the nominees have demonstrated outstanding performance in classroom teaching, research and service to the university and its affiliate institutions.

After reviewing recommendations from colleagues and deans, a committee of Distinguished Professors recommended the trio to CU President Bruce D. Benson, who will submit the names to the CU Board of Regents for confirmation at the regents' November meeting. The regents plan to recognize two nominees at their November meeting at the Anschutz Medical Campus, and the third at their February meeting at UCCS.

"Our university is fortunate to have faculty members who are not only world-class researchers, but dedicated teachers and committed, caring members of the CU family," Benson said Tuesday.

Arend's career spans 40 years of clinical work, teaching, service to the university and his profession, as well as biomedical research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and several foundations. He is internationally known for his discovery of the IL-1 receptor antagonist protein, or IL-1Ra, which has led to treatments for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. His colleagues said Arend has kept a personal mentoring relationship with his research team, and throughout his career has been deeply committed to the education of students, residents, faculty, postdoctoral fellows, professional research assistants and practicing physicians.

Cambier is the Ida and Cecil Green professor and chair in the School of Medicine's integrated department of immunology. His work has focused on B cell immunology for 20 years. In 1988, he was one of the first to discover the proteins that signal the inside of a B cell to inform it that it has engaged an antigen on the outside. The discovery of these signaling proteins has enabled immunologists to understand B cells and how they detect antigens, substances that cause the creation of antibodies and a subsequent immune response in the body. Besides his scientific research, Cambier is credited with training many doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. He has been the only chair to the School of Medicine's immunology department, guiding it since its inception.

Klingner has taught at UCCS and two other universities over 35 years. He is an internationally renowned expert on human resources management in the public sector, and is recognized at CU as a leader in research, classroom teaching and professional service. Klingner has had a distinguished career that includes his experiences as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Central America; a visiting professorship at UNAM, Mexico's National Autonomous University; and numerous collaborations with the United Nations, the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank in the realm of public management capacity building. He recently completed a one-year term as president of the American Society for Public Administration, the oldest and most prestigious professional association in his field. He is the author of the best-selling "Public Personnel Management." His students credit him with making his subject matter engaging and relevant.