Three professors receive provost title

Chemistry professor Bogdan Dragnea, communications and culture professor Barbara Klinger and cognitive science and psychological and brain sciences professor Peter Todd were named provost professors in the past week.

They were named for their outstanding teaching and research in local, national and international fields, according to a press release.

All three professors are professors in the College of Arts and Sciences.

According to the release, the position of provost professor was originally named the chancellor’s professor when it was created in 1995, but it changed to the current name in 2009.

Professor Dragnea’s work in physical virology and research on the tracking of viruses in living cells has pushed IU to the forefront of the chemistry field.

He has also recorded research with the virus, HIV-1, as he has worked on ways to prohibit the growth of the virus.

As a teacher, Dragnea has also contributed to the development of IU’s chemistry department.

He has received grants from the National Science Foundation and has helped with the execution of a new graduate curriculum for the school, according to the press release.

Professor Klinger is a leading scholar in film studies, with published lectures, articles and books being used in classrooms across the world.

She has authored several books, including “Melodrama and Meaning: History, Culture, and the Films of Douglas Sirk,” “Beyond the Multiplex: Cinema, New Technologies, and the Home.”

She will soon publish anotrher work called,  “Cinema and Immortality: Hollywood Classics in a Transmediated World.”

Klinger has also contributed to 20 dissertations, with six still in progress.
In 2011, Klinger became president of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the national organization in the field of film studies.

Professor Todd has written books on simple heuristics based on his research on how and why people make simple decisions.

his research also delves into generative adaptive behavior. He has looked at the interaction between evolution and cognition, according to the press release.

His published works vary on topics, including research on food decisions, the choice in one’s mate, parental behavior development across time and musical cognition.

Todd is a professor for both graduate and undergraduate courses and the director of the Cognitive Science Program for graduates.

He is also a member of the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research and the Food Studies Program, according to the press release.

“Professors Dragnea, Klinger and Todd have combined highly original research and scholarship with outstanding teaching of both graduate students and undergraduates,” Provost Lauren Robel said in the press release.

“I am delighted to recognize their dedicated efforts to advance the University, its students and their faculty colleagues.”

The provost professors will be awarded $2,500 each year for the next three years, and they will also receive a $5,000 grant.

The money will go toward a project on how the combination of teaching and research is helpful to the success of both endeavors.

The provost professors will be honored at a reception in the fall at a location and date to be determined according to the release.

Jessica Campbell