Nine Wooster professors named to endowed positions

WOOSTER, Ohio - The College of Wooster has appointed nine veteran professors to endowed positions, effective July 1, 2007.

Susan D. Clayton, a social psychologist and member of the Wooster faculty since 1992, has been named the Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology. Clayton is co-author of Justice, Gender and Affirmative Action and president of the American Psychological Association's Society for Population and Environmental Psychology.

John P. Gabriele has been appointed to the Raymond and Carolyn Dix Chair of Spanish. He specializes in 19th and 20th century Spanish peninsular culture and literature and has published a number of books and articles in those areas since joining the Wooster faculty in 1986.

Shila Garg will hold the William F. Harn Professorship in Physics. An expert in liquid crystals, light scattering, and optics, she has been a member of the Wooster faculty since 1987 and has served as dean of the faculty since 2002.

Paul L. Gaus has been appointed to the Brown Professorship in Chemistry. A specialist in inorganic chemistry and co-author of Basic Inorganic Chemistry, a leading textbook in that field, Gaus joined the Wooster faculty in 1977.

Ronald Earl Hustwit is the new holder of the Frank Halliday Ferris Chair of Philosophy. The author of Something About O.K. Bousma and editor of five volumes of Bousma’s works, Hustwit's teaching responsibilities include ancient philosophy, logic, and philosophy of mind. He joined the Wooster faculty in 1967.

Charles L. Kammer III has been appointed to the Lincoln Chair of Religion. A member of the Wooster faculty since 1990 and author of two books on religion and social ethics, his areas of expertise include biomedical ethics, liberation theology, and the church in society. Kammer is an ordained pastor with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

John Lindner has been appointed to the Moore Professorship of Astronomy. Since joining the Wooster faculty in 1988, his research has focused on nonlinear dynamics, including stochastic resonance, cellular automata, and self-organized criticality. He holds a U.S. patent for a noise and coupling tuned signal processor array.

Marilyn D. Loveless has been named the Horace N. Mateer Professor of Biology. A specialist in plant population biology, population genetics, ecology, and plant biology, Loveless is editor of Tropinet, an international quarterly for tropical biologists. She joined the Wooster faculty in 1987.

Virginia B. Pett has been appointed to the Robert E. Wilson Professorship in Chemistry. A member of the Wooster faculty since 1981, her research interests include molecular modeling and X-ray diffraction studies of molecules of biological interest, and bioinformatics.

The College of Wooster is an independent liberal arts college, nationally recognized for an innovative curriculum that emphasizes independent learning. Each Wooster senior works one-on-one with a faculty mentor to create an original research project, written work, performance or art exhibit. Founded in 1866, the college enrolls approximately 1,800 students.