M. Cristina Marchetti, the William R. Kenan Professor of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University, has been named a Distinguished Professor by Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly. The distinction is one of the University’s highest honors for faculty, bestowed on those few who have attained extraordinary scholarly achievement and exhibited a record of outstanding intellectual leadership in their discipline.

“Cristina is deeply deserving of this distinction,” says Wheatly. “She not only has tirelessly pursued her own pioneering research but she also has been a leader among those working to advance our overall institutional research activity and profile. In addition to her seminal contributions to her field, she also has been a dedicated mentor to doctoral candidates, some of whom already have earned national notice for their work. By these measures and more, she is an outstanding leader and role model among her peers and among the next generation of research scholars.”

A member of the University faculty since 1987, Marchetti has achieved international prominence for her scholarship relating to theoretical soft matter physics. Her scholarly record includes more than 150 published works and citations in more than 550 publications per year. She speaks frequently at international conferences—including at least 10 such presentations this year alone—and has collaborated with partners from around the world.

She has consistently earned strong support for her research from government agencies and foundations, most notably the National Science Foundation’s Division of Materials Research and Division of Graduate Education. Most recently, she secured an NSF grant for $420,000 over three years for her research project titled “Dynamics and Mechanics of Active Matter.” She serves as principal investigator on multiple other grant awards, including the $3 million Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program grant from the National Science Foundation.

As part of the nominating process, Marchetti earned praise from external peer reviewers, who cited the enormous influence of her work and who count her among the top experts internationally in the field of soft matter physics.

Marchetti, who also has served as associate director of the Syracuse Biomaterials Institute since 2007, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies. She also is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. Most recently, she was appointed co-lead editor of the Physical Review X, a highly selective, online open-access journal published by the American Physical Society.

Marchetti earned her Ph.D. in physics from University of Florida, Gainesville.