Joe Caspermeyer, Media Relations Manager & Science Editor
(480) 727-0369 | joseph.caspermeyer@asu.edu
May 13, 2008
Lindsay receives Regents' Professor honor
ASU President Michael Crow and the university’s executive vice president and provost, Elizabeth D. Capaldi, have announced four new ASU Regents’ Professors for 2008. This year’s honorees include James Ohlson, W. P. Carey Chair of Accountancy, Otto Sankey, professor of physics, Elly van Gelderen, professor of English, and the Biodesign Institute’s own Stuart Lindsay, PhD, who has been at ASU for 29 years.
The title “Regents’ Professor” is the highest faculty honor awarded at ASU. It is conferred on ASU faculty members who have made pioneering contributions in their areas of expertise, who have achieved a sustained level of distinction, and who enjoy national and international recognition for these accomplishments.
“The individuals chosen this year are at the top of their professions in the sciences, the humanities and business, indicative of the breadth of accomplishments occurring at ASU,” Capaldi said. “We are proud to recognize the achievements of such distinguished scholars.”
Lindsay, a professor in physics and chemistry and the Edward and Nadine Carson Presidential Chair in Physics, leads the Center for Single Molecule Biophysics at the Biodesign Institute. Specializing in biophysics at the molecular level and scanning probe microscopy, he is an international leader in the area of experimental physics and chemistry.
Dr. Lindsay’s lab conducts innovative research in biological physics, molecular electronics, solar energy and condensed matter physics. Lindsay’s center researchers are interested in how genes work, and study the way in which proteins change DNA structure to switch genes on and off. They are also interested in the chemistry and physics of the liquid-solid interface, and are trying to understand electrochemical and charge transfer processes at the single-molecule level.
One project that Dr. Lindsay is pursuing is a new method of DNA sequencing to allow much faster and cheaper sequencing of individual human genomes and help usher in the era of personalized medicine. His radical approach, called “sequencing by recognition,” involves using nanostructures to read the electrical current through DNA bases, thereby identifying the sequence. Lindsay has made key contributions to the understanding of electron transfer in single molecules and to the science of nanotechnology. Lindsay holds 29 patents and is a technology advisor for the Atomic Force Microscope Division of Agilent Technologies. He has also constructed specialized scanning probe microscopes in collaboration with Molecular Imaging Corporation, which was founded in 1993 by Lindsay and his collaborator Tianwei Jing and acquired by Agilent Technologies in 2005.
After receiving his PhD in Physics from the University of Manchester, Lindsay spent two years as a consultant at Philips Industries in London before joining the faculty at ASU. His body of published work comprises over 170 articles in peer-reviewed journals and many book chapters and refereed conference papers. Dr. Lindsay sits on the editorial boards of Biophysical Journal and AIP Press International Series in Basic and Applied Biological Physics. He also holds the position of Associate Editor for Probe Microscopy at Ultramicroscopy, and Associate Editor for the Americas at Nanobiology. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society.
Nominations for Regents’ Professorships are made by faculty members and are submitted to a nominating committee in the fall. The prestigious honor includes an increase of $5,000 to the faculty member’s base salary, as well as an annual grant of $5,000 to support scholarly endeavors. The Arizona Board of Regents ratified this year’s selections April 25.
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-compiled from ASU news sources by Alison Farquhar
