The Distinguished Chairs Program was created to honour and celebrate outstanding achievement in research, scholarly, or artistic work by University of Saskatchewan faculty or emeriti. Professors Emeriti, or current members of the University of Saskatchewan faculty possessing academic qualifications corresponding with an appointment at the rank of Full Professor are eligible for appointment to the Chairs position.

Nominations

• Call for Nominations - Competition is currently closed
• Terms of Reference
• For more information, contact the Vice-Provost's Office.

2010 Recipients

James Dosman
James Dosman, the “father of agricultural medicine” in Canada, has devoted his career to improving the health of, and preventing injury to, farmers and their families. He began at the U of S, then completed a residency and postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University that established him in his specialty of respiratory medicine. He returned to the U of S to found the Division of Respiratory Medicine in the College of Medicine in 1975, and, 11 years later, the Centre for Agricultural Medicine – now known as the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture (CCHSA). The organization is the only one in Canada to provide research, education, and health promotion to agricultural and rural populations – a crucial service to the families working in one of the most dangerous occupations in Canada and the U.S.

Madan Gupta
Madan Gupta is recognized internationally for groundbreaking work in fuzzy logic (mathematics of human language) and neural networks (mathematics of the human brain) and their application to advanced robotic control systems. Such systems have diverse application, from passenger trains to autofocus systems for digital cameras. A Professor Emeritus and director of the Intelligent Systems Research Laboratory at the College of Engineering, Gupta and his colleagues push the frontiers of computational fuzzy neural networks in fields such as aerospace, medicine, business, and the courts of law. He has shared his knowledge and expertise through both undergraduate and graduate courses in adaptive control systems, neuro-control systems, neuro-vision systems and fuzzy logic, as well as workshops and keynote talks around the world. He has supervised numerous international graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and visiting professors conducting research in these fields.

Brian Rossnagel
Brian Rossnagel is one of Canada’s best known crop scientists and one of the world’s top experts in barley and oat breeding and genetics. Based at the Crop Development Centre at the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, he is responsible for more than 90 new cultivars, several of which have become the preferred varieties for western Canadian farmers. Some are unique, such as the first hull-less barley, or have set a new standard for quality, such as CDC Dancer oat. He developed the world’s first high oil, low lignin hull feed oat with a similar nutritional profile to barley, and a low-phytate barley which can help reduce the environmental impact of high intensity hog operations.

David Christensen
David Christensen spent most of his career in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources. He began his education at the U of S and completed his graduate studies at McGill. He started his research career at Cornell University in New York before returning to the U of S. For more than four decades, Christensen built an international reputation for his research in dairy nutrition. He was among the first to recognize the importance of trace minerals in livestock production, and feed formulations based on his research have been widely adopted in western Canada. His work in developing feed applications for agricultural co-products such as canola meal helped open new international markets for Prairie grain producers.

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