Each year, The University of New Mexico selects a handful of professors to be honored with the highest faculty title the University bestows — distinguished professor
Announced jointly by the UNM Office of Academic Affairs in collaboration with the Health Sciences Center Office of Faculty Academic Affairs, the title of distinguished professor is reserved for academics who “have demonstrated outstanding achievements and are nationally and internationally renowned as scholars,” according to the UNM Faculty Handbook
This year, six academics from across disciplines — ranging from DNA repair to economics — have been chosen for this honor
The 2026 distinguished professors are Robert Berrens, Melanie Moses, Michelle Ozbun, Tassy Parker, Alan Tomkinson and Mark Unruh
Information about each honoree’s scholarship and accomplishments is listed below:
Robert Berrens
Robert Berrens, a professor of economics in the College of Arts and Sciences, specializes in environmental and resource economics, which includes the areas of water resources, wildfire, public lands management, valuation of environmental goods and amenities, and endangered species. A significant amount of his research is in the field of non-market valuation, and he was an early pioneer in applying non-market valuation techniques to estimate the values of environmental goods and services. His work in this area — at the beginning of the internet age when non-market valuation surveys were being moved online — set the foundation for how economists viewed the credibility and reliability of online economic valuation surveys. In a series of papers on this topic, published in leading economics and political science journals, including in the highly regarded American Economic Review, Berrens showed under what conditions non-market valuation surveys could be used to obtain credible results and how researchers could minimize hypothetical bias in such surveys. To this day, economists cite the works of Berrens as being foundational for conducting non-market valuation research.
Melanie Moses
Melanie Moses, a professor in the Department of Computer Science in the School of Engineering, established an internationally recognized, interdisciplinary program that has pioneered research in biologically inspired computation, swarm robotics, computational immunology and trustworthy AI. This research has advanced understanding of how decentralized systems in computation and biology adapt to the environment and scale to large sizes. Moses’s research has shaped both theoretical foundations and practical applications of distributed computational and biological systems. As principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on over $20 million in research funding from National Science Foundation, NASA, DARPA, Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health, and industry partners, she has built sustained research capacity for UNM and the state of New Mexico. In addition, Moses has been a leader in the development of inclusive education programs, including NASA Swarmathon, which has engaged more than 1,500 students from minority-serving institutions in a national robotics competition; and New Mexico CS for All, which has trained dozens of teachers who have taught thousands of high school students, most from underrepresented groups, through a dual-credit computer science course that was the first computer science course to count toward New Mexico’s natural science course requirement.
Michelle Ozbun
Michelle Ozbun, the Maralyn S. Budke Endowed Professor of Viral Oncology and professor of molecular genetics and microbiology in the School of Medicine, is an expert and leader in the fundamental research on oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPVs), which contribute to nearly 5% of global cancers. Ozbun is internationally recognized as a molecular virologist and cancer biologist with a translational program that spans from basic science research to efforts aimed at HPV infection prevention and improving clinical outcomes. She has had NIH-funded research since 2000 and also has received substantial funding from industry and foundations. Her current studies involve early HPV infection events and the regulation of HPV gene expression. Ozbun utilizes monolayer cell culture, organotypic three-dimensional epithelial (“raft”) tissue cultures, as well as animal models, for the study of anogenital and oral infections and their neoplastic conversion.
Tassy Parker
Tassy Parker, a professor in Family and Community Medicine and the colleges of Nursing and Population Health, has made transformative contributions to Indigenous health, equity and education at local, national and international levels. A proud Seneca Nation citizen born and raised on the Cattaraugus Territory of New York, Parker has spent more than two decades transforming the landscape of Indigenous health by building bridges among science, culture, education, policy and community leadership. A medical sociologist, registered nurse, executive director of the UNM Center for Native American Health, and associate vice president for American Indian Health Research and Education, her work spans mental health, substance use recovery, chronic disease prevention, trauma, obesity, and Indigenous research governance, always grounded in the belief that Native communities hold the knowledge, strength and authority to shape their own health futures. Through more than $10.7 million in external funding, dozens of peer-reviewed publications, and leadership roles across Tribal, urban Indian, national, and global Indigenous health networks, she has helped build the infrastructure for a new generation of Indigenous scholars, health professionals, leaders and traditional knowledge keepers.
Alan Tomkinson
Alan Tomkinson, a professor in cellular and molecular biology in the Department of Internal Medicine in the School of Medicine, has led groundbreaking research in DNA repair and genome stability, significantly advancing cancer biology and treatment. For more than 30 years, he has maintained continuous funding through the National Institutes of Health on DNA ligases I, III, and IV. His translational research has resulted in the development of DNA ligase inhibitors with therapeutic potential and the discovery of new cancer biomarkers. In addition to his extensive contributions in scholarship, he has played a key role in institutional leadership, directing graduate programs, mentoring students and guiding the UNM Cancer Center to achieve National Cancer Institute (NCI) Comprehensive status and renewal. Tomkinson’s management of the pilot grant program has generated over $20 million in NIH funding.
Mark Unruh
Mark Unruh, a professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, specializes in nephrology and has conducted groundbreaking research that has advanced both science and patient care. Over the past two decades, he has built an extensive publication record on kidney disease. Unruh’s research is especially known for pioneering the study of patient centered outcomes in chronic kidney disease (CKD) – including the measurement of health-related quality-of-life in dialysis patients and the management of symptoms like sleep disorders and fatigue in end-stage renal disease. These contributions have been published in top-tier journals such as the Journal and of the American Medical Association, Internal Medicine, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology,and has influenced clinical practice guidelines and national research priorities. Unruh has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than $100 million in NIH, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), Veterans Affairs, and foundation-funded studies, including leadership roles in landmark trials such as HEMO, Frequent Hemodialysis Network Trial, and PCORI-funded interventions to improve depression treatment in dialysis patients. He also played a central role in founding the Kidney Institute of New Mexico, securing a $6 million philanthropic gift.
Additional information about the distinguished professor process, criteria and a list of past recipients can be found on the Office of the Provost website
