Professor William Wood of the molecular, cellular and developmental biology department at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Dec. 19 received the prestigious title of distinguished professor from the CU Board of Regents.
Wood joins only 19 other CU-Boulder faculty members who currently hold the title of distinguished professor.
According to Regents' laws, the designation of distinguished professor is bestowed on members of the university faculty "who have distinguished themselves as exemplary teachers, scholars and public servants and who are individuals having extraordinary international importance and recognition."
Wood has been widely recognized for his research into the assembly of bacterial viruses and more recently for research regarding genetic control of early embryonic development in the nematode C. elegans. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He also has been active in teaching and science throughout his career, including being the lead author of the widely used textbook "Biochemistry: A Problems Approach," which helped introduce problem-based learning into biochemistry.
Wood also has served on the National Research Council committee that produced the report "Learning and Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in U.S. High Schools." He currently serves on the editorial board of the journal Cell Biology Education.
Wood received a bachelor's degree from Harvard in chemistry in 1959 and a doctorate in biochemistry from Stanford University in 1963. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.