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Richard Wilkinson, professor in the departments of Classics and Near Eastern Studies, was one of five University of Arizona faculty members recently honored for exceptional achievements which have garnered them national and international recognition. Wilkinson and UA Professors Howard Ochman –Ecology and Evolutionary Biology- and Elizabeth Vierling –Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics- are the latest to be designated as Regents' Professors, celebrated at the eleventh annual Induction Ceremony held on January 22, 2009 in Crowder Hall. Also officially installed as the newest University Distinguished Professors were Paul Wilson of the Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics and Carrol McLaughlin of the School of Music. Participating in the induction ceremony were members of the Arizona Board of Regents, the presidents of the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University, as well as UA Provost Meredith Hay. The honor of Regents' Professor is awarded only to full professors and is the highest honor awarded by the University to its faculty members. No more than three percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty members may hold the rank at any given time. Individuals holding any faculty rank are eligible for University Distinguished Professor. The award honors those with at least 10 years teaching experience – half in undergraduate teaching – as well as a distinguished record of creative scholarship. Regents' Professor Richard Wilkinson is internationally renowned for his eight popular books on Egyptology, which have been translated into 19 languages. He also is recognized for his leadership of the UA Egyptian Expedition and for his excavations in the Valley of the Kings – most notably of the mortuary temple of the 12th century B.C.E. Queen Tausert, one of the few Egyptian queens who ruled Egypt as pharaoh. Wilkinson's numerous grants have come from institutions such as the Amarna Foundation, the American Research Center in Egypt and the Petty Foundation. Along with his hugely successful books on Egypt, his 33 trend-setting articles and his consultancy to the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt have made him one of the 30 most important Egyptologists in the history of his field, according to a recent online survey. His work on ancient hieroglyphs, Reading Egyptian Art, was selected by the journal Antiquity as its Archaeology Book of the Year. "People like Richard Wilkinson contribute to the progress of knowledge in the best sense of the term," said Greek archaeologist Nanno Marinatos. "His work in Egyptian iconography, religion and symbolism is a landmark in the history of Egyptian research. Most Egyptologists are art historians, archaeologists or textual scholars. Richard Wilkinson is all three." A UANews video profile of Wilkinson will appear soon at http://uanews.org/multimedia/video |
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