Three faculty members in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences—Gary Perdew, professor of veterinary science; Jack Schultz, professor of entomology; and James Shortle, professor of agricultural and environmental policy—have been named Distinguished Professors by the University.

The title of Distinguished Professor was established by the Office of the President to recognize a select group of professors with exceptional accomplishments in teaching, research, and service.

Perdew teaches courses in biochemical and molecular toxicology. His research focuses on dioxin and related compounds and how they cause toxicity in human cells.

Prior to joining Penn State in 1995, Perdew was a faculty member in the foods and nutrition department at Purdue University. Previously, he was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow in the oncology department at the University of Wisconsin.

He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in food science from the University of Maryland and his doctorate in food science from Oregon State University, where he received a Chiles Foundation Graduate Fellowship. In 2002, he was awarded Penn State’s Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Life and Health Sciences.

Schultz, a leader in the emerging field of chemical ecology, studies chemically mediated interactions among plants, insects, microbes, and vertebrate predators. His research is aimed at understanding the importance of dynamic plant responses to environmental stimuli.

Schultz came to Penn State in 1983. He previously held various teaching and research positions with the University of Chicago, the University of Washington, the Organization for Tropical Studies, Vermont Law School, and Dartmouth College.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Chicago and his doctorate in zoology from the University of Washington. He was awarded the 1997 Alex and Jessie C. Black Award for Excellence in Research.

Shortle’s teaching and research focus on environmental and natural resource economics. His interests include the integration of economic and environmental information for environmental decision making; economic incentives for environmental management; decision making under uncertainty; and impacts of climate change on natural hazards, agriculture, human health, and water resources.

Shortle has been a faculty member at Penn State since 1981. From 1976 to 1981, he held research assistant and research associate positions in the economics departments at Iowa State University and the University of New Mexico.

He received a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science and a master’s degree in economics from the University of New Mexico, and earned his doctorate in economics from Iowa State University. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 1990 and 1991 and won the Penn State Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta Research Award of Distinction in 1999.

— Chuck Gill