Five Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Named Professorships

Thu H. Le has been appointed the John J. Kulper Distinguished Professor and Chief of the Division of Nephrology in the department of medicine at the University of Rochester in New York. She previously served as a faculty member at the medical schools of Duke University and the University of Virginia.

Dr. Le holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and philosophy and a medical doctorate both from George Washington University.

Laura McGuinn has been named the inaugural Thomas H. Lowder Endowed Chair in Development and Behavioral Pediatrics, director of the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, and clinical director of the Civitan-Sparks Clinics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She was a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma.

Dr. McGuinn holds a medical doctorate from the University of Texas.

Olena Morozova Vaske has been named the inaugural holder of the Colligan Presidential Chair in Pediatric Genomics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has been an assistant professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology at the university since July 2018.

Dr. Vaske holds a bachelor’s degree in molecular genetics and biology from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in bioinformatics from the University of British Columbia.

Melynda J. Price has been appointed to the John R. Gaines Endowed Chair in the Humanities at the University of Kentucky. She will be the first woman and first African-American director of the John R. Gaines Center for Humanities. Professor Price has been a faculty member at the university since 2006.

Dr.  Price is a graduate of Prairie View A&M University in Texas where she majored in physics. She holds a juris doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan.

Hui Cao has been named the John C. Malone Professor of Applied Physics and of Physics at Yale University. She has been a Yale faculty member since 2008.

Dr. Cao holds a Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University in California.