Three faculty members — Vikram Dalal, Steven Rodermel and Hongwei Xin  —have been awarded Distinguished Professorships by ISU President Steven Leath.

The professorships will take effect in the 2014-15 academic year. Recipients will be honored Sept. 22 at the annual faculty and staff award ceremony.

The Distinguished Professorship recognizes faculty for exemplary performance in research and/or creative activities as reflected by a national or international reputation in the nominee’s discipline.

“The Distinguished Professor award, bestowed by President Leath, is among the very top honors an Iowa State faculty member can receive,” said Jonathan Wickert, senior vice president and provost.

Recipients were originally nominated by department colleagues before a lengthy university review process, including letters of support from experts in the field along with input from the Faculty Senate and past recipients of the award.

“The award ultimately represents the president’s commitment to supporting our faculty, while raising the visibility and stature of both the faculty and university,” said Wickert.

The Distinguished Professorships were awarded in the departments of engineering, liberal arts and sciences and agriculture and life sciences.

The Anson Marston Distinguished Professorship in engineering was awarded to Dalal, Whitney Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has been the director of the Microelectronics Research Center since 1999.

The research center is a multi-disciplinary center focusing on the study of semiconductor materials, devices and applications.

Dalal has also collaborated with Indian researchers in the United States and abroad, developing and finding uses for organic solar cells. Organic solar cells have the potential to provide energy conservation at a low cost.

Rodermel, professor of genetics, development and cell biology, has been selected for the Distinguished Professor in liberal arts and sciences. Rodermel’s research is focused on the function of protein in photosynthesis and chloroplast biogenesis.

Rodermel has both national and international experience in his field. In 1997, Rodermel worked with the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth as a visiting professor in Kyoto, Japan. He also served as a Program Director in the Integrative Organismal Biology Division at the National Science Foundation in Washington D.C. from 2003-05.

Rodermel joined the ISU faculty in 1990 as an assistant professor.

Xin, professor of agriculture and biosystems engineering and the current director of the Egg Industry Center, will receive the Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in agriculture and life sciences.

The the Egg Industry Center was established at Iowa State in 2008.

“The mission of the center is to add value to the egg industry by conducting and facilitating research … through national and global collaboration,” according to the department of agriculture and biosystems engineering website.

Xin has worked with scientists and engineers from 14 countries to address the impact of environmental and management factors on livestock and poultry.

All of the recipients of the Distinguished Professorship will receive a $6,500 raise to their base salaries.