Prabir Dutta, Robert K. Fox Professor of Chemistry, and Ellen Mosley-Thompson, professor of geography and director, Byrd Polar Research Center, were named 2010 Distinguished University Professors.

The Distinguished University Professor title is awarded permanently to no more than three exceptional faculty per year. The title recognizes accomplishments in research, scholarly or creative work, teaching, and service that are both distinguished and distinctive. The Office of Academic Affairs awards honored faculty a $30,000 one-time cash award to support their academic work.

Prabir Dutta’s contributions of scientific expertise in both his research and teaching have resulted in extraordinary innovations important to international scientific and technological communities. In his extensive research career, Dutta has made significant contributions in several areas of study.

In the area of sensor technology, Dutta developed sensors monitoring the operation of auto engines, leading to valuable information that improves public health, safety and auto efficiency. His research in sensors has drawn support from commercial partners and national laboratories and attention from both mainstream and scientific media.

Dutta also has contributed groundbreaking research in the scientific study of zeolites — microporous materials with numerous scientific uses. His expertise in zeolite-based systems that convert light into electricity is paving the way for the development of alternative energy sources.

Dutta is the driving force behind the Research Experiences to Enhance Learning initiative, an NSF-funded program that adds a research component to the general chemistry lab curriculum. Now used throughout Ohio, Dutta’s innovative initiative affects hundreds of students every day.

Dutta received one master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, a second master’s and his doctorate from Princeton University and has been an Ohio State faculty member since 1983.

Ellen Mosley-Thompson is a pioneer whose research has played a key role in charting historical global climate change. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was a contributing author to a 2007 Nobel Prize-winning report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

As director of Ohio State’s Byrd Polar Research Center and co-founder of the Ice Core Paleoclimate Research Group, Mosley-Thompson plays a vital part in climatological research through the collection and analysis of ice cores from around the globe. Much of the ice core collection has been done through “on the ground” fieldwork in remote areas by Mosley-Thompson herself.

Mosley-Thompson was the first woman to lead a remote camp drilling project to the Plateau Remote in Antarctica and has been instrumental in promoting the participation of women in the geosciences and field research in remote areas.

Ellen Mosley-Thompson has served on a number of National Academy Committees including five years on the Committee on Global Change and two years on the Committee on Geography. She served as President of the Atmospheric Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union and as an editor for EOS, the organization's newspaper.

Mosley-Thompson received her master’s and doctorate in geography from Ohio State and has been a part of the OSU community ever since. In 2003 she received the University Distinguished Scholar Award from The Ohio State University. That same year she was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame.