Three outstanding NDSU faculty members have been selected as finalists for the 60th Faculty Lectureship, which will be held at a later date during spring semester.
The finalists include:
• John Cox, professor of history, philosophy and religious studies
• Mukund Sibi, University Distinguished Professor of chemistry and biochemistry
• Bill Wilson, University Distinguished Professor of agribusiness and applied economics
The Faculty Lectureship is one of the oldest and most prestigious of the NDSU’s awards. It recognizes sustained professional excellence in teaching, scholarly achievement and service among current faculty at NDSU. The honor is conferred on an individual who has demonstrated excellence in all three areas.
John Cox
“Dr. John K. Cox exemplifies NDSU's proud tradition of humanities scholars who bravely writes and lectures on topics that teach and illustrate why focusing on human commonalities during troubled times unifies rather than divides us,” said nominator Mark Meister, former professor and chair of communication. “His academic work as a historian of modem European history and Serbia, his teaching of courses on Holocaust, Russian political ideology, the Ottoman Empire as an editorial board member and expert lecturer make him an ideal recipient of the 2019-20 NDSU Faculty Lectureship.
Cox has written two books on Serbia’s history and another book on the history of Slovenia. In addition he has written 15 book-length translations of Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, Hungarian and Slovene literature and poetry. Cox also has published 50 research articles and presented his research at national and international conferences.
In addition, he is a regular reviewer of scholarly works for Slavic Review, Slavic and East European Journal, Slovene Studies, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, World Literature Today and International Social Science Review.
Cox earned his bachelor’s degree at Guilford College, and master’s and doctoral degrees from Indiana University.
Mukund Sibi
“Throughout his 33-year career at NDSU, Mukund has devoted himself to sustained excellence in teaching, research and service. His tremendous efforts and outstanding achievements in all three areas have been a true testament to the mission of the university and served to promote NDSU at local, regional and global levels,” wrote faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, including Gregory Cook, Alexey Leontyev, Sangita Sinha, Pinjing Zhao, Guodong Liu, Dmitri Kilin, Jane Schuh, Dean Webster, Chad Ulven, Philip Boudjouk, Uwe Burghaus, Christopher Colbert, Stuart Haring, John Hershberger, Gundrun Lukat-Rodgers, James Nyachwaya, Alrx Parent, Seth Rasmussen, Kenton Rodgers, Wenfang Sun, John Wilkinson and Zhongyu Yang.
Sibi is internationally recognized as one of the top organic chemists and is in the top two percent of the most cited scientists, according to the Clarivate database. His work includes 180 peer-reviewed journal publications, 22 book chapters, one edited book and 12 patents. He is the director of the NDSU Center for Protease Research and co-leads the Center for Sustainable Materials Science with Dean Webster.
Some of Sibi’s honors include NDSU Excellence in Mentoring Award, Yoshida Lectureship Award at the University of Tokyo, Japanese Society for Promotion of Science Fellowship, NDSU Chamber of Commerce Service Award, Haines Lecture at the University of South Dakota, Mentor of the Year in the College of Science and Mathematics, Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, James A. Meier Professor, Novartis Lecturer at Boston College, Dale Hogoboom Endowed Professor, Jordon A. Engberg Professorship, Eli Lilly Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Notre Dame and NDSU’s Fred Waldron Award for Research Excellence.
Sibi earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Bangalore University, India, and his doctorate at City University of New York.
Bill Wilson
“Dr. Wilson has developed a lasting legacy as an academic educator in the areas of commodity marketing and risk management. He is a gifted teacher who successfully places students with top commodity firms nationally and internationally,” said nominator Cheryl Wachenheim, chair of the Agribusiness and Applied Economics Awards Committee, noting Wilson has received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the American Agricultural Economics Association and NDSU’s Peltier Award for Excellence in Teaching and Innovation.
In addition, Wilson has written 137 refereed journal articles, two books and 20 book chapters on agricultural technology and commercialization, procurement, transportation and logistics and international marketing and competition. He has presented more than 750 times to local, regional, national and international audiences. He has received the NDSU College of Agriculture, Food Systems and Natural Resources Dahl Research Award, and the Outstanding Journal Article Award from the Western Agricultural Economics Association.
Wilson has served as campaign ambassador for the NDSU Foundation, lead of the Wheat Improvement Technology Team for the experiment station, member of the University President Discussion Group and member of the program committee for the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute.
He earned his bachelor’s degree at NDSU and his doctorate in agricultural economics from the University of Manitoba. He was a visiting scholar for Stanford University’s Food Research Institute and is the CHS Endowed Chair in risk management and trading.
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