KU faculty earn University Distinguished Professor status
LAWRENCE — Five University of Kansas faculty members have been named University Distinguished Professors, recognizing their record of research, scholarship and excellence in teaching.
The 2025 recipients:
- Raj Bhala, School of Law
- Jeffrey Burns, School of Medicine
- Hyunjin Seo, William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications
- Debra Sullivan, School of Health Professions
- Russell Swerdlow, School of Medicine.
Their appointments will be effective at the start of the fall 2025 semester.
“These individuals have proven themselves to be accomplished educators and impactful scholars in their respective disciplines,” said Barbara A. Bichelmeyer, chief academic officer/provost and executive vice chancellor. “This recognition reflects their significant accomplishments and contributions, and they serve as representatives of the exceptional scholarly community we foster at KU. Congratulations to each of them on this honor and distinction.”
Distinguished professorships are based wholly on merit, following exacting criteria.
At the Lawrence campus, nominations of current KU faculty members come from academic departments and schools. Major criteria for selection include a record of exceptional scholarship, participation in university affairs and professional organizations, service to the community, and support for the growth and success of nominees' students, colleagues and the institution. The University Committee on Distinguished Professorships reviews nominations and forwards its recommendations to the provost for final approval.
For KU Medical Center, faculty nominations are submitted at the department or school level by an individual or group in an associated discipline. The honor is reserved for those who have made significant and sustained contributions to research, scholarship, teaching and education at the medical center.
Lists of distinguished professors for the Lawrence/Edwards and Medical Center campuses are available online.
About the 2025 University Distinguished Professors
At the Lawrence campus
Raj Bhala
Bhala is a Fulbright Specialist in law and literature and international trade law. He has held the inaugural Leo. S. Brenneisen Distinguished Professorship and the Raymond F. Rice Distinguished Professorship, as well as served as associate dean for international and comparative law.
Bhala has taught at several law schools nationally and internationally, including the George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C., and the William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia.
He is a member of the speaker program of the U.S. Department of State and serves on the executive board of directors of the Carriage Club of Kansas City, as well as the Alumni Association Board of University School of Milwaukee.
Bhala is the author of 13 books, and he has written or co-written 100 scholarly law review articles, particularly in law and literature and international trade law. His eight-volume “International Trade Law: A Comprehensive E-Textbook” is one of the world’s leading references in the field.
Bhala earned his juris doctor at Harvard Law, a master’s degree in management from Oxford University, a master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics and his bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University.
Hyunjin Seo
Seo is a professor, Oscar Stauffer Chair and associate dean for research and faculty development in the School of Journalism & Mass Communications, and she serves as director of the KU Center for Digital Inclusion. Her term as associate dean concludes in August.
Seo has previously served as a fellow and faculty associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. She has won numerous awards for her research and teaching, including the Louise Byrd Graduate Educator Award, which recognizes educators’ dedication to fostering the personal and professional development of graduate students.
Seo’s research examines how social collaborative networks facilitated by digital communication technologies affect social change at local, national and international levels.
She has published more than 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, including her own book, “Networked Collective Actions: The Making of an Impeachment.”
Her community-engaged projects on digital and emerging media have received over $6 million in funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and other grant-making organizations.
Seo earned her doctorate in mass communications from Syracuse University, a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, a master’s degree in international relations from Kyung Hee University in South Korea and a bachelor’s degree in English education from Kyungpook National University in South Korea.
At KU Medical Center
Jeffrey Burns
Dr. Jeffrey Burns is the Edward H. Hashinger Professor of Medicine and the co-director of the KU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (KU ADRC). He also directs the Department of Neurology's Neurocognitive Division, the Clinical and Translational Science Unit in Fairway and the KU ADRC’s Clinical Core, which is a site for national clinical trial networks.
Burns started the Alzheimer’s clinical research program at KU Medical Center in 2004. His education includes a bachelor’s degree in English and Japanese from the University of Notre Dame, a doctor of medicine and master’s in clinical research, biostatistics and epidemiology from the medical center, a neurology residency at the University of Virginia and a postdoctoral fellowship in Alzheimer's disease at Washington University in St. Louis.
He returned to Kansas City to start the Alzheimer's clinical program while pursuing research investigating how various lifestyle factors influence brain aging and AD. Burns has been continuously funded as a PI by the NIH since 2005.
He has supported the development of over 100 clinical research protocols across nearly all departments at the medical center and has served as a primary mentor for numerous junior faculty and postdoctoral fellows. He is the recipient of the KU Medical Center Excellence in Mentoring Award and the Chancellors Club Research Award.
Debra Sullivan
Debra Sullivan is chair of the Department of Dietetics & Nutrition and the Midwest Dairy Endowed Professor of Clinical Nutrition.
Sullivan’s research has focused on dietary assessment, obesity prevention, Alzheimer’s disease and the role of diet in chronic disease management. She has secured over $8 million in NIH and other federal funding as principal investigator and has collaborated on projects totaling over $30 million.
In addition, she has written or co-written more than 145 peer-reviewed publications and served as an NIH and USDA study section reviewer.
Sullivan has guided the work of numerous NIH-funded junior faculty and more than 130 master’s and doctoral students, and she has served on numerous high-level committees, including the Cancer Center, the Alzheimer’s Disease Center and the Executive Committee for Rural Health.
Her work has earned her awards for mentoring, teaching and service, including the Kansas Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics Distinguished Dietitian of the Year and the KU Medical Center Investigator Research Award.
Sullivan earned both her undergraduate and master’s degrees in nutrition and medical dietetics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Sullivan earned her doctorate in nutritional sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and worked clinically as a registered dietitian while completing her doctorate.
Russell Swerdlow
Dr. Russell Swerdlow is a professor in the departments of Neurology, Cell Biology & Anatomy and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology in the School of Medicine, and he additionally holds the Gene and Marge Sweeney Chair of Neurology.
Swerdlow directs the KU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, its Neurodegenerative Disorders program and the Heartland Center for Mitochondrial Medicine.
He is a recipient of an S. Weir Mitchell Award from the American Academy of Neurology, a Cotzias Award from the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, a Chancellor’s Club Research Award from KU, a Dolph Simons Research Achievement Award in the Biomedical Sciences from KU and the Oskar Fischer Prize.
From 2017 to 2021, Swerdlow sat on the National Institute on Aging’s Board of Scientific Counselors. He previously chaired the CurePSP Foundation's Research Committee and chaired the Commonwealth of Virginia's Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Commission. Swerdlow currently serves on advisory committees for several biomedical foundations and on the editorial boards of several biomedical research journals. His research focuses on brain energy metabolism, its role in Alzheimer’s disease and its therapeutic manipulation.
Swerdlow earned a bachelor’s degree from New York University and a doctor of medicine from New York University School of Medicine. He completed fellowships in neurodegenerative diseases at the University of Virginia Health System and in geriatric neuropsychiatry at the University of Virginia/Western State Hospital.