A biologist and a psychiatrist will be awarded the prestigious rank of distinguished professor during University of Utah commencement exercises June 8.
John R. Roth, a molecular geneticist, and Paul H. Wender, research director of the University School of Medicine, were selected as distinguished professors by faculty who currently hold the title. The University reserves the rank for select individuals whose achievements exemplify the highest goals of scholarship.Roth, professor and chairman of the Department of Biology, originated and was the first coordinator of the Molecular Biology Graduate Program, which recruits and trains graduate students in genetics, cell biology and biochemistry. He came to the U. in 1976.
His laboratory studies the structure and evolution of bacterial chromosomes, synthesis and physiology of vitamin B12 and regulation of bacterial metabolism. In the past, his group has worked on genetic suppression and control of histidine synthesis.
Wender's scholarly interests are primarily the role of heredity and environment in mental illness and hyperactivity or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Wender published the first treatise on hyperactive children in 1971. Since 1975, he and his U. colleagues have shown that attention deficit disorder can persist in adults, but is treatable with medication.