University Distinguished Professors at Western Kentucky University

Dr. Anthony Harkins, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2025

Department of History

Potter College of Arts & Letters

Anthony Harkins is University Distinguished Professor at Western Kentucky University and a scholar of U.S. popular culture history, particularly representations of rural America. He is the author of Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon (Oxford University Press, 2004) and co-editor, with Meredith McCarroll, of Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy (West Virginia University Press, 2019) which expresses the complexities and possibilities of contemporary Appalachia through scholarship, narrative essay, photography and poetry. He is also the author of “The Midwest and the Evolution of ‘Flyover Country’” (2016), “Airlines, Interstates and the Creation of ‘Flyover Country’ in the United States,” (2015), and “‘Television belongs to Everyone’: The life, vision, and legacy of Kentuckian Julian Goodman” (2021).  Dr. Harkins teaches courses in modern US, World and Appalachian History and American Studies.  He has served as the interim chair of the History Department and the Communication Department and currently serves as chair of the PCAL Cultural Enhancement Series committee and as a Commissioner on the Kentucky Oral History Commission.  

Dr. Rui Zhang, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2025

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Ogden College of Science and Engineering

Dr. Rui Zhang has been a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at WKU since 2006. He earned his Ph.D. in 2001 from the University of Hong Kong and subsequently completed a prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Würzburg in Germany. Over the past two decades, Dr. Zhang has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate chemistry courses—serving students across diverse academic backgrounds and learning formats. Dr. Zhang’s research centers on fundamental oxidation chemistry, with a particular focus on developing biomimetic, metal-based catalysts for the selective production of oxygenated compounds. He has secured over $2 million in external funding to support his research and has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications. He has mentored over 100 research students, including 21 master students in his lab, many of whom have advanced to doctoral programs at leading research universities or professional schools across the United States. Dr. Zhang has also been an active contributor to public service and departmental governance.

Dr. Julia Link Roberts |  University Distinguished Professor

Mahurin Professor of Gifted Studies

The Center for Gifted Studies, Executive Director

The Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky, Executive Director

Julia Link Roberts is the Mahurin Professor of Gifted Studies at WKU. She is the Executive Director of The Center for Gifted Studies and The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science. She is currently a member of the boards of the Association for the Gifted (a division of the Council for Exceptional Children) and the Kentucky Association for Gifted Education. She is chair of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and past-President of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children. Dr. Roberts has published seven books and numerous chapters and journal articles. Her honors include the Spirit of WKU (2011), the Acorn Award as the Outstanding Professor at a four-year university in Kentucky (2012), the Ann Fabe Isaacs Founder’s Memorial Award by the National Association for Gifted Children (2019), and the Conference USA Scholar (2025). Dr. Roberts is a graduate of the University of Missouri, B.A., and Oklahoma State University, Ed.D..

Dr. Gordon Emslie, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2024

Department of Physics & Astronomy

Ogden College of Science and Engineering

Gordon Emslie earned a PhD in Astronomy and a D.Sc. in Science from the University of Glasgow. He is also a licensed Professional Engineer and an FAA-certified Flight Instructor with some 8,000 hours of flight instruction given.

Emslie has taught almost every course in the WKU Physics curriculum, from the calculus-based introductory sequence to upper-level courses in most of the physics “food groups.” His teaching philosophy places a strong emphasis on not only the acquisition, but also the understanding and communication, of scientific results and knowledge.

Emslie’s research focuses on the physics of solar flares, eruptions from the Sun that release the energy of a billion one-megaton bombs and which can eject a billion tons of material into interplanetary space at a million miles an hour. He was a Co-Investigator on the NASA Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) mission, which generated unparalleled images of solar flares in X-rays from its launch in 2002 to its decommissioning in 2018. He is currently part of a team that developed a web-based tool to provide the launch teams for solar-observing rocket instruments with information on the location of flaring activity on the solar disk. He is also fascinated by total solar eclipses and led a very diverse group of WKU faculty and students in the development and deployment of the SunSketcher project, which generated timing data from a network of thousands of cell phones distributed along the path of the 2024 solar eclipse; this data will be used to determine the shape of the Sun to unprecedented accuracy.

For 45 years Emslie has chaired the Student Committee of the American Astronomical Society’s Solar Physics Division, and he also chairs its Public Policy Committee. His favorite scotch is 14-year-old Balvenie Caribbean Cask.

Dr. David Zimmer, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2024

Department of Economics

Gordon Ford College of Business

David Zimmer is University Distinguished Professor of Economics at WKU, where he currently serves as the chair of the Economics Department. He earned a PhD in Economics at Indiana University. Prior to joining the WKU faculty, he worked as a staff economist at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in one of its antitrust enforcement units. His research focuses on using statistical copula functions to model microeconomic phenomena. His book on copulas, entitled “Copula Modeling: An Introduction for Practitioners,” is a standard graduate-level reference. He has authored nearly 70 articles in leading academic journals.

Dr. T. Keith Philips, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2023

Department of Biology

Ogden College of Science and Engineering

Dr. T. Keith Philips completed his Ph.D. at Ohio State University in 1997 and began his career at WKU in 2000. His teaching includes the foundational first year biology course on evolution, diversity, and ecology, insect biodiversity, systematics and evolution, insect evolution, and beetle diversity. He has also taught a two-week course on Neotropical Biodiversity in Costa Rica since 2011 for Gatton Academy.

His research program is broad, groundbreaking, and often conducted with international scientists and includes studies mainly on spider beetles, dung beetles, and cave ground beetles. Considered a world expert on these groups by his peers, he has described and named numerous genera and species and published around 100 scientific papers on the evolution and diversity of beetles (with over 2500 citations) as well as 13 book chapters. He has involved numerous undergraduate and graduate students in various research projects and has provided them exemplary experiences overseas to localities such as Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. Dr. Philips' research techniques stay current with the latest developments in technology. The recently collected molecular DNA sequence data on cave beetles from Eastern Kentucky was analyzed using a cutting-edge 3-RAD Next Generation Sequencing technique. He has received external grants from the National Science Foundation (BSI and EPSCOR programs), as well as successfully competing for internally available research money to make the most of every research opportunity. Dr. Philips has a strong commitment to helping students become thinking, engaged and socially responsible citizens and leaders.

He had been the director of the Applied Research and Technology Programs Biotechnology Center is an associate editor of several journals including ZooKeys, Subterranean Biology, and the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. He is periodically interviewed by reporters from, for example, WBKO TV on various insects in Kentucky. His favorite hobbies are mountain biking, hockey, and landscape oil painting.

Dr. John Cipolla, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2022

Department of Music

Potter College of Arts & Letters

Dr. John Cipolla is a University Distinguished Professor of Music (Clarinet and Saxophone) at Western Kentucky University, recognized internationally for his contributions as a performing artist and pedagogue. He actively contributes to the global music community through performances, publications, and clinics at major festivals and universities worldwide. He continues to further influence performance standards by serving on competition juries. He has served as a jury member or president of the jury for over ten international music competitions across three continents, as well as for many national and state competitions. He also serves as a consultant for the selection of repertoire for competitions.

 A leader in his professional society, Dr. Cipolla served as President of the International Clarinet Association, effectively expanding the organization’s international collaboration. His performance experience is vast, stemming from extensive work in New York City, where he served as a woodwind player with prestigious ensembles like The New York City Opera, St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, and the Radio City Music Hall orchestra. His diverse recording credits are featured on labels such as Sony, ECM New Series, Nonesuch, and Centaur.

Dr. Cipolla is recognized internationally as a pedagogue and is regularly invited to teach and present master classes throughout Europe and the US. His excellence in teaching has been repeatedly recognized, earning honors such as the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Distinguished Alumni award and being named the Kentucky Music Educators “Teacher of the Year” four times. Throughout his career, his students have achieved success, gaining acceptance into prestigious degree programs, securing college teaching posts, and establishing performing careers around the world, utilizing the skills learned at WKU. His academic background includes a D.M.A. from UNC Greensboro, an M.M. from Rutgers University, a B.M. from The Eastman School of Music, and studies at The Juilliard School.

Dr. Rodney King, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2021

Department of Biology

Ogden College of Science and Engineering

Dr. Rodney King is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the Medical College of Virginia and completed postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Weisberg at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a National Research Council (NRC) Research Associate. He continued his work at the NIH as a Staff Scientist before accepting a faculty position at Western Kentucky University in 2002. Dr. King’s research is focused on understanding bacteriophage biology, genomics and diversity. He has served as interim Director of the Mahurin Honors College and is the current Chair of the Institutional Biosafety Committee. Dr. King teaches courses in microbiology, virology, and recombinant gene technology and he is a recipient of the Kentucky Academy of Science Distinguished College or University Teacher Award (2014).

Yvonne Petkus, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2021

Department of Art

Potter College of Arts & Letters

Yvonne Petkus, artist and Professor of Art at Western Kentucky University, explores ideas of struggle and persistence, the sublime, and forces, traces, and actions through her process-based paintings. She is committed to a discourse of ideas through teaching and through an ongoing schedule of exhibitions and lectures. Petkus earned her MFA in Painting from the University of Washington and BFA in Painting from Syracuse University.

Petkus has presented her work in exhibition venues and conferences across the U.S. and internationally, with honors that include the distinction of University Distinguished Professor, the University Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity, and artist grants and awards from the Great Meadows Foundation, Kentucky Arts Council, and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. She also served as the U.S. Juror on the jury panel for the 2023 ZVONO Award in Bosnia-Herzegovina and as visiting artist at Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, New York, conducting studio visits for awardees from similar competitions in Central and Eastern Europe. She has presented her ongoing research at conferences of the College Art Association, SECAC, and the Athens Institute (in Athens, Greece), attended artist residencies in New York, Vermont, Iceland, and Italy, and was chosen for the Zuheir Sofia Endowed International Faculty Seminar Fellowship Program (ZSEIFS) in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Her ZSEIFS research led to intensive and significant programming for WKU that can still be experienced in-person on our campus through a visit to the courtyard of the Kentucky Museum, where two semi-permanent "wall-cut" murals stand, created during a week-long workshop with visiting artists (the HAD Collective) from Bosnia. Petkus also curated the international ZSEIFS exhibition of work by twelve artists titled Proof of Existence: An Exhibit of Work by Contemporary Artists of Bosnian and Balkan Origin and has since presented the results of this curatorial work and her own ongoing studio research in venues around the country and world, including in Sarajevo at the KUMA International Center for Visual Art from Post-Conflict Societies Conference on Contemporary Art, and as a panel member for the Austria-based podcast "Contemporary Matters". Petkus is represented by the Moremen Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky and her work has been critically reviewed in the journal Under Main. Throughout her roles, Petkus has seen the power that artwork has to give voice, to challenge, and to connect; and uses her work and work with other artists to provide the space, discourse, and material evidence of that power.

Documentation of Petkus' work can be viewed at www.yvonnepetkus.com

Dr. Ferhan Atici, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2019

Department of Mathematics

Ogden College of Science and Engineering

Ferhan Atici received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Mathematics from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1993 and 1995, respectively. She has been the University Distinguished Professor at the Department of Mathematics of Western Kentucky University since 2018. From 1996 to 1999, she was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mathematics of Ege University, where she was an Associate Professor from 1999 to 2002. Since 2001, she has worked at the Department of Mathematics of Western Kentucky University. She has been the founder and faculty advisor for the WKU American Mathematical Society (AMS) Student Chapter since 2015. Professor Atici directed more than twelve senior projects, twenty master theses, and has won several prizes and awards, e.g. Ogden College Science and Engineering Faculty Teaching Award (2025), University Distinguished Professor (2018), Women in Science and Engineering Award (2015), University Faculty Award for Research and Creativity (2011). She has been the Scientific Committee member, invited speaker and organizer at more than 20 conferences and meetings and is the Editor and Associate Editor for more than a dozen of international academic journals. Professor Atici published 69 papers including a chapter in a book in the fields of Analysis and Applied Mathematics, including difference equations, differential equations, calculus on time scales, dynamic equations and their applications to economics, discrete fractional calculus and their applications to medical sciences.

Dr. Aaron Hughey, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2018

Department of Counseling and Student Affairs

College of Education and Behavioral Sciences

Dr. Aaron W. Hughey has been a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Counseling and Student Affairs since 2018; he oversees the master’s degree program in Student Affairs in Higher Education as well as graduate certificates in International Student Affairs and Career Services. Before joining the faculty in 1991, he spent 10 years in progressive administrative positions, including five years as the Associate Director of University Housing at WKU. He was also Head of the Department of Counseling and Student Affairs for five years before returning to the faculty full-time in 2008. Dr. Hughey has degrees from the University of Tennessee at Martin, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Western Kentucky University, and Northern Illinois University. A Wakonse Fellow since 2023, he received the Jospeh P. Cangemi Award for Excellence in Leadership in Psychology/Education in 2017, the Melvene Draheim Hardee Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Student Affairs Profession from the Southern Association for College Student Affairs (SACSA) in 2016, the President’s Award for Diversity in 2012, was inducted into the WKU Libraries Open Access Hall of Fame in 2016, and received the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences (CEBS) Faculty Award for Research/Creativity in 1997 and the CEBS Faculty Award for Productive Teaching in 2003. He has co-authored two textbooks, nine book chapters, seven conference proceedings, and over 70 refereed publications in top tier journals on a wide range of issues including leadership and student development, counseling, standardized testing, diversity, legal issues, and educational administration. His articles have been downloaded over 67,000 times from TopScholar, Western’s scholarly repository. He regularly presents at national and international conferences and consults extensively with companies and schools. He also provides training and professional development programs on topics ranging from student success to lean management and quality control.

Dr. Chris Groves, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2011

Department of Geography and Geology

Ogden College of Science and Engineering

Chris Groves is University Distinguished Professor of Hydrogeology at WKU and Director of the Crawford Hydrology Laboratory. He earned a PhD in Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia, developing an international research program in hydrogeology, geochemistry, and water resources. Since 1995, Groves has helped lead several United Nations scientific programs focused on study and conservation of water resources of rural southwest China. In 2017 President Xi Jinping awarded him China’s highest honor for foreign scientists, for “great contributions to China’s hydrogeology and karst geology fields.”

Groves has studied and explored caves and surface landscapes throughout the world, including in and around Mammoth Cave National Park, serving there as expedition leader and past President of the Cave Research Foundation.

What gives him the most satisfaction in his work? Several class evaluations through the years have noted that “he cares about his students.”

Dr. Michael Seidler, Professor  |  University Distinguished Professor 2005

Department of Political Science

Potter College of Arts & Letters

Michael J. Seidler, Professor of Philosophy, received his Ph.D. from St. Louis University and has taught at WKU since 1986, initially in the Dept of Philosophy & Religion and then in the Political Science Dept. His teaching areas and  philosophical interests are wide (including various areas of applied ethics) but his research concentration is on moral & political thought in the early modern period (CE 1500–1800). Dr. Seidler is a recognized authority in this field, particularly so-called natural law philosophy and its role in the emergence of social contract theory and the post-Reformation secularization and justification of philosophical ethics. His opus encompasses standard editions and translations (from Latin) of early modern texts (particularly works of Samuel Pufendorf), as well as authoritative historical and philosophical interpretations of these. His publishers include major academic presses such as Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, DeGruyter, and Macmillan/Ashgate.