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Three faculty members from Northern Arizona University have been promoted to Regents’ professors.
Paul Beier, conservation biology and wildlife ecology; Edith Copley, music; and Darrell Kaufman, geology and environmental science, were approved by the Academic Affairs Committee of the Arizona Board of Regents on Thursday. All three had been recommended by NAU after a nomination and review process. The appointments become effective in August.
NAU now has 15 Regents’ professors.
Appointment as a Regents’ professor is one of the highest honors the university bestows on its faculty. The title is reserved for faculty with exceptional achievements that have brought them national and/or international distinction and whose work is of superior quality according to standards set by leading scholars in the field.
Beier, a member of the School of Forestry for 20 years, focuses his research on the observation and modeling of animal movement and the design and implementation of wildlife corridors, connectivity and conservation planning. He has received international recognition as a scholar for his studies of animal movement, and for his models that identify areas most suitable as wildlife corridors. Beier conducted the first systematic review showing how and when corridors can work in conservation.
Copley, director of choral studies, joined the NAU music faculty in 1990. She has conducted internationally during a high-profile career that includes invitations to serve as all-state or all-region clinician, honor choir conductor and workshop presenter. She has taken NAU’s select Shrine of the Ages Choir on statewide, national and international performance tours to Carnegie Hall, Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. Copley also holds leadership positions in state, regional and national choral organizations.
Kaufman has been a member of School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability (formerly Geology and Environmental Science) for 12 years. He has developed a major research program aimed at using geologic evidence of past climate variability to help understand current and future climate change. Kaufman also uses both biological and physical properties of lake sediment to interpret the history of environmental and climate change over thousands of years. Kaufman is a highly recognized scholar with an international reputation and his peer-reviewed publications are the second highest at NAU for the past five years.