President Steven Leath has awarded Morrill Professorships to three faculty members.

Cinzia Cervato, Robert Stephenson and Donald Simonson will be honored by their peers at the annual faculty and staff award ceremony Sept. 22.

The professorships will become active for the 2014-15 academic year and the recipients will retain their titles for the remainder of their ISU careers.

According to Jonathan Wickert, senior vice president and provost, the Morrill Professorship is prestigious and difficult to obtain.

“The nomination process starts in Iowa State’s academic departments and colleges and includes letters of support from preeminent experts in the appropriate fields,” Wickert said. “The Faculty Senate and past recipients of the award also play important roles in the evaluation process.”

The Morrill Professorship recognizes faculty for demonstrating outstanding success in teaching and learning in undergraduate, graduate and/or extension and outreach programs reflected by a national or international reputation in the recipient’s discipline, said Wickert.

The Morrill professors will also join Iowa State’s Morrill Academy for Teaching and Learning where they will share their expertise with other faculty.

Cervato, professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, began her career at Iowa State in 2001 after working for a private company in Norway.

“I missed working with students, it’s my passion!” Cervato said. “It’s a great honor to see my hard work pay off.”

Between 2003 and 2008, Cervato served as the executive director of the multi-institutional research project Chronos, funded by the National Science Foundation. Chronos was formed to deliver a platform where geologists around the world could more easily share their research.

Chronos was named for the Greek word for time because the project was about geologic time and Earth’s history.

Due to a health issue, Cervato was unable to teach in spring 2014 but expects to return.

“I just care too much about teaching for this to keep me out of the classroom,” Cervato said.

Robert Stephenson, university professor of statistics, has published numerous research articles regarding both the mathematical discipline of statistics and statistics education.

Stephenson was the editor of Journal of Statistics Education from 2004-06 and won the prestigious Louis Thompson Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2011.

Since arriving at Iowa State in 1979 as an assistant professor of statistics, Stephenson’s Morrill Professorship adds to the University Professorship he earned in 2000.

Donald Simonson, professor of music and theater, is a former president of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and remains an active member today.

“The acoustics of the singing voice has been a big part of my research.”

Simonson believes part of his responsibility is to the larger community and outreach is important. “My job is to facilitate growth both here at ISU and in the larger community.”

Each recipient of the Morrill Professorship also receives a $6,000 raise to his or her base salaries.