Indiana University South Bend Chancellor Terry L. Allison has named Dr. Peter Bushnell the 2017 Chancellor’s Professor. Bushnell is professor of Physiology and has been teaching at IU South Bend since 1993. The Chancellor’s Professor honors a full professor or librarian with highly meritorious performance in all areas of work. It recognizes a record of extensive accomplishment and leadership in teaching, research and campus service. Chancellor Allison established the award in his first year at IU South Bend as a way to recognize and encourage excellence in faculty on campus.
Bushnell is a distinguished researcher and part of a team that recently made a groundbreaking discovery about the Greenland shark. Based on radiocarbon dating from the study of 28 female Greenland sharks, the team determined that the species can live to be more than 300 years old, making them the longest-living vertebra on earth. The team is continuing to study the shark’s migratory behavior, metabolic rate, skeletal and heart muscle, and the way its blood oxygen levels are managed.
Bushnell has a Ph.D. in Medical Physiology from the University of Hawaii, a master’s degree in Shark Physiology from the University of Miami, and a bachelor’s degree in Zoology/Animal Physiology from the University of Maryland. He will be on sabbatical next semester and will complete his Chancellor’s Professorship obligations in 2018.
The Chancellor’s Professorship comes with an increase in compensation and an assignment made in consultation with the chancellor that will advance the mission of the campus. The title remains in perpetuity. Gwen Mettetal, professor of Psychology and Education, was the 2016 Chancellor’s Professor.
