University of Pittsburgh Faculty Honored as Distinguished, University Professors

PITTSBURGH—The University of Pittsburgh has honored two faculty members in the School of Arts and Sciences, one as Distinguished Professor and one as University Professor. Sanford A. Asher has been named Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, and Stephen B. Manuck has been named University Professor of Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine. Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg made the appointments, which became effective Feb. 1, based on the recommendation of Pitt Provost James V. Maher.

The rank of Distinguished Professor recognizes extraordinary, internationally recognized, scholarly attainment in an individual discipline or field. The title University Professor is given in recognition of eminence in several fields of study, transcending accomplishment in, and contributions to, a single discipline.

Biographical information on the faculty honorees follows.

Sanford A. Asher

Asher, a professor of analytical and physical chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and a researcher in the University's Institute of NanoScience and Technology, is the inventor of photonic crystals made from arrays of colloidal particles. He has used the self-assembly of colloids as a motif for creating materials and optical devices that detect chemicals—a technology Pitt has licensed to PPG Industries for use in color-shifting paints. In addition, the chemical-sensing materials have been licensed to a spinoff company, Glucose Sensing Technologies, which is creating contact lenses that change color to noninvasively inform diabetics of their sugar levels.

Asher also has developed ultraviolet resonance Raman spectroscopy as a technique used to study complex chemical and biochemical systems. Most recently, he has used this approach to examine the first stages in protein folding. How proteins fold remains the most outstanding problem in the study of enzymes. For this pioneering work, he received the 2002 Ellis R. Lippincott Award from the Optical Society of America, the Coblentz Society, and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

Among Asher's other honors are the 2005 Sigi Ziering Award from the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, the 1999 Bomem-Michelson Award from the Coblentz Society, the 1994 ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Spectrochemical Analysis Award, and the 1988 Lester Strock Award from the Society of Optical Spectroscopy.

At Pitt since 1980, Asher earned the Ph.D. degree in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and the B.S. degree in chemistry at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He was a postdoctoral fellow in applied physics at Harvard University.

Stephen B. Manuck

Manuck is a professor of psychology, as well as director of Pitt's Behavioral Physiology Laboratory, which houses the Initiative for Neurobehavioral Genetics. He also was founding chair of the graduate program in biological and health psychology, serving in that position from 1996 to 2004.

Manuck's research focuses on the role of behavior in the origins of cardiovascular disease and on the neurobiology of aggressive behavior and impulse control. He is the principal investigator for Pitt's Adult Health and Behavior Project, which has established an extensive registry of behavioral and biological measurements collected on a large sample of community volunteers. The purpose of this registry is to permit molecular genetic studies of normal variation in personality and temperament, cognitive abilities, lifestyle-related risk factors for chronic diseases of adulthood, and a diversity of physiological functions.

At Pitt since 1980, Manuck is a past president of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research and received the Outstanding Contributions to Health Psychology Award from the American Psychological Association in 1999. He was an assistant professor of psychology at both the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., and the University of Virginia. He earned the Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in clinical psychology at Vanderbilt University, and the B.A. degree in psychology at the University of California at Davis.

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