Eight Wayne State University professors who have distinguished themselves in various ways have been named by the university's Board of Governors as distinguished professors. The honorees were recognized at a recent meeting of the board.
In making the announcement during the meeting, President Irvin D. Reid noted that each of the professors being honored as "distinguished" has achieved very high standards required of all nominees for the honor. The honorees, in alphabetical order, are as follows:

A. Ronald Aronson of Huntington Woods has been at Wayne State since 1968 and is professor of interdisciplinary studies in the College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs. He is recognized internationally as an author who joins social activism with the history of ideas. His books include Stay Out of Politics: A Philosopher Views South Africa; After Marxism; and Camus & Sartre: The Story of Friendship and the Quarrel That Ended It. In 2002, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Natal.

Kenneth Honn of Grosse Pointe Woods, professor in the pathology and radiation department at the WSU School of Medicine, has had an extraordinarily productive career since joining the university in 1968. He has 13 patents to his credit, along with 13 books either authored or co-authored and nearly 300 chapters and articles published. He has been recognized as one of Wayne State's most cited researchers. As director of the university's Prostate Cancer Initiative since 1995, his initiatives have led to millions of dollars in support for the program.

Bhanu Jena of Bloomfield Hills joined the physiology department in WSU's School of Medicine in 2000 following long-term prior service at Yale University in surgery and biomedical engineering. He has received international recognition, including a nomination for the national Academy of Sciences Award in molecular biology. He also was invited to assist in creation of the Asia Nanobiotechnology Center in Korea.

Rafail Khasminskii of Farmington Hills, professor in the mathematics department in the WSU College of Science, came to the university in 1992 after a distinguished career at Moscow State University and adjunct professorships at universities in the United States and Australia. He has published widely in probability theory and statistics. Since 1996, he has been supported continuously by the National Science Foundation, a rare achievement in his discipline.

Gisela Labouvie-Vief of Royal Oak, professor in the psychology department in the College of Science, came to Wayne State in 1976. She has published extensively and has made major contributions to both the theoretical and empirical literature in adult development as well as obtaining more than $8.5 million in grant funding. A member of the WSU Academy of Scholars, she received the American Psychological Division 20's Research Accomplishment Award in 2001 and was invited to address the annual meeting of the association in 2002.

Melvin Small of Royal Oak, professor in the history department in the College of Liberal Arts, joined the Wayne State faculty in 1965 as a specialist in political history. An exceptional scholar of American foreign relations, he has published or edited 12 books. His most recent is Antiwarriors: The Vietnam War and the Struggle for America's Hearts and Minds. In 1996, he was awarded a NATO research fellowship. He also has been recognized with a Canadian Government Faculty Enrichment Award and an ACLS Grant-in-Aid.

Richard Osborn of Kingston, Wash., is a professor in the management and organization science department in the School of Business Administration. He joined the WSU faculty in 1985 after five years as senior research scientist with the Battelle Memorial Institute in Seattle. His research has focused on strategic leadership and international alliances and has been supported by more than $7 million in grants. He has published extensively in the top journals of his field and has served as editor of the Journal of World Business and guest editor of the American Management Journal.

Peter Williams of Detroit, professor in the art and art history department -- College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts -- came to Wayne State in 1987. His paintings have been exhibited in nearly a dozen solo shows, more than 40 national two-person or group shows and approximately 35 regional and local exhibitions. Two of his works have been shown at the prestigious Whitney Museum in New York, and his paintings also are in the collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Dayton Hudson Center and McKnight Center. He has won several WSU faculty awards and is a recipient of a Detroit Council for the Arts Urban Margins Grant.