Two outstanding NDSU faculty members have been selected by the Faculty Awards and Recognition Committee to present upcoming Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Lectures.
Mukund Sibi, University Distinguished Professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is set to give his lecture Tuesday, Dec. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Union Anishinaabe Theater and via Zoom.
William Wilson, University Distinguished Professor of agribusiness and applied economics, is set to give his Phil Kappa Phi lecture in early spring.
The lectureship was established in 2015 by President Dean L. Bresciani to recognize faculty whose high-impact research, scholarship or creative activity consistently supports NDSU’s top tier research status and who have a proven ability to present their research to a broad community in the land-grant tradition.
“NDSU is fortunate to have faculty like Drs. Sibi and Wilson whose dedication to teaching and research is critical to creating an intellectual community for our faculty and students. Their high impact research benefits our students, our state and the world,” said Vice Provost Canan Bilen-Green, who chairs the Faculty Awards and Recognition Committee.
Sibi’s presentation, “Saving the World: One Molecule at a Time,” will explain how organic chemistry plays a key role in making therapeutics for cancer and other diseases.
“Throughout his more than 30- year career at NDSU, Professor Sibi has devoted himself to sustained excellence in teaching, research and service, as well as outreach activities, and inspired all faculty members and students at the department with his superior work as a researcher, teacher, mentor and citizen,” wrote nominators and faculty colleagues Gregory Cook, Sangita Sinha, Pinjing Zhao, Dmitri Kilin and Alexey Leontyev.
Sibi joined the NDSU faculty in 1987 and has built an international reputation in synthetic organic chemistry, radical chemistry in particular. He developed the first catalytic method for carrying out enantioselective radical reactions.
He has received numerous honors, awards and lectureships, including the prestigious Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society, NDSU’s Excellence in Mentoring Award, NDSU Chamber of Commerce Service Award and NDSU’s Fred Waldron Award for Research Excellence.
“Mukund Sibi exemplifies the qualifications for the Phi Kapa Phi Lectureship. He is a shining light in our community that is noticed around the globe, and we are truly privileged to have him as our colleague,” his nominators wrote.
Sibi earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Bangalore University, India, and his doctorate at City University of New York.
During his presentation, Wilson will share his work in the context of challenges and opportunities in global agricultural trade and competition.
Wilson’s research concentrates on risk and strategy as applied to agriculture and agribusiness. His expertise is highly sought and he regularly consults with major agribusiness firms. Wilson has worked extensively with companies in agriculture technology, logistics and procurement strategy; railroads; ocean shipping; grain elevators; and processed products industries. He routinely has overseas projects and clients and travels internationally extensively.
He has served on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange board, Federal Grain Inspection Service Advisory Board and is a board member of several regional ag technology and venture capital firms. Wilson also created the NDSU Commodity Trading Room, a state-of-the-art teaching and research facility. Recognized as one of the top 10 agricultural economists of 1995, Wilson more recently was named among the best 1% of agricultural economists by Research Papers in Economics.
“Dr. Wilson is an extraordinarily accomplished researcher. He authored 137 refereed journal articles, two books and 20 book chapters,” said nominator Cheryl Wachenheim, chair of the Agribusiness and Applied Economics Awards Committee. “His 267 other publications, including experiment station reports, articles in published proceedings and popular press articles, is a testament to his commitment to ensure his research is widely available to stakeholders in agribusiness, government, organizations and production agriculture.”
Among his many honors are the Eugene R. Dahl Excellence in Research Award, NDSU’s Peltier Award and the H. Roald and Janet Lund Excellence in Teaching Award.
Wilson earned his bachelor’s degree at NDSU and his doctorate in agricultural economics from the University of Manitoba.
Previous Phi Kappa Phi Lectureship recipients are: Tom DeSutter, Kalpana Katti, Stephenson Beck, Clay Routledge, Joel Caton, Michael Strand and Michael Robinson.
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