Karen Bjorkman, professor and interim chair of physics, has been named a new distinguished university professor for the 2009-10 year. There were six professors selected this year out of 24 candidates.
Each professor chosen for the honor will receive a $5,000 grant per year for five years.
Being honored as a distinguished professor means an individual has had a great impact on UT, said Main Campus Provost Rosemary Haggett.
“It’s an important comment on their reputation,” Haggett said.
To be a distinguished university professor, faculty members must meet a few standards, including having reached full professorship status. They must show exemplary teaching skills or professional activity, Haggett said.
Bjorkman has been a faculty member at UT for 13 years and has served on several committees.
Bjorkman was vice-chair for the Graduate Council for one year. She has also been a member of the Arts and Sciences Council and served on the Executive Strategic Planning Committee.
“I have been fairly active and working to make the university the best it can be,” she said.
Bjorkman has also contributed to many articles concerning polarization of B-type stars and related cosmic objects, and in 2008 she received UT’s Outstanding Teacher Award.
Bjorkman said her proudest accomplishments working at UT are the work she does with her students and the ability to make new discoveries.
“I’m extremely proud of the students I’ve worked with. It’s fun to see them become scientists,” she said.
Bjorkman said she feels honored to be a distinguished professor.
“There are a number of good faculty members at the university, and to be a distinguished university professor is special,” she said. “I look up to retired previous distinguished professors in my department, and it feels good to follow in their footsteps.”
Bjorkman said when she was younger she wanted to be an astronomer, and even though she is a professor of astronomy, she still considers herself an astronomer.
“You get to share the excitement about learning about the universe, and it just broadens the meaning of being an astronomer,” she said.
Bjorkman has secured many external funds for UT including the $500,000 NASA Long-Term Space Astrophysics Grant. The NASA grant represents the highest caliber of research done in the field of astrophysics.
Bjorkman said she has one specific thing she plans to do with the money from the $5,000 grant.
“I intend to continue my research program. Hopefully this will give me some ability to do more things, such as travel to observatories to discover new things,” she said.
Bjorkman said she hopes her new status as a distinguished professor will give her Women of Science group more publicity.
“I want to show a lot of young women that they can be scientists too,” she said.
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