The Watkins Visiting Professorship was created in 1974 by a grant from the Watkins Foundation. E. A. Watkins was Vice President of the Union National Bank, Wichita in 1936 when he acquired a small iron foundry and wholesale hardware firm that he built into Watkins, Inc., a major steel fabrication and industrial supply company. His son, E. Leon Watkins, a 1936 University alumnus, succeeded his father as president of the firm. After Leon Watkins' death in 1971, his widow, Roberta - who is also an WSU alumna - announced that the Watkins' Foundation Board of Trustees had determined that "the sole project of the foundation shall be the support of the Watkins Visiting Professorship at Wichita State University." The departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Geology, and Physics share the professorship.
Watkins Professors of the last ten years are as follows:
|
Dr. Gary Brudvig |
Yale University |
October 8-9, 2002 |
| Drs. Nancy and Jerry Jaax | Kansas State University | April 12, 2002 |
| Mario Capecchi | University of Utah School of Medicine | February 11-13, 2001 |
| Pat Higgins | University of Alabama | March 29-30, 2001 |
| Ahmed H. Zewail | California Institute of Technology | September 26, 2001 |
| Niles Eldredge | American Museum of Natural History | October 8-11, 2001 |
| Michael Gross | Washington University Center for Biomedical and Bioorganic Mass Spectometry | October 23-26, 2001 |
| Alan Feduccia | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | Oct. 31-Nov.1, 2001 |
| George Gokel | Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis | Nov. 27-30, 2001 |
| William Rathje | Arizona Garbage Project | March 1, 1999 |
| Inder Verma | Salk Institute | April 1, 1999 |
| Robert Ballard | Institute for Exploration | September 1, 1999 |
| Colleen Cavanaugh | Harvard University | October 1, 1999 |
| Peter Glynn | University of Miami | November 1, 1999 |
| Robert M. Bigsby | Indiana University School of Medicine | March 1, 1998 |
| H. Leon Bradlow | Rockefeller University | March 1, 1998 |
| Theo Colborn | World Wildlife Fund | March 1, 1998 |
| Robert J. Kavlock | National Health & Environmental Effects Research Laboratory | March 1, 1998 |
| Dolores Lamb | Baylor College of Medicine | March 1, 1998 |
| Daniel M. Sheehan | National Center for Toxicological Research | March 1, 1998 |
| Ana M. Soto | Tufts Unviersity School of Medicine | March 1, 1998 |
| Frederick S. Vom Saal | University of Missouri | March 1, 1998 |
| Richard Alley | Pennsylvania State University | March 1, 1997 |
| Fred MacKenzie | University of Hawaii | March 1, 1997 |
| Robert Berner | Yale University | April 1, 1997 |
| Daniel B. Botkin | George Mason University | April 1, 1997 |
| Julius Rebek | Scripps Research Institute | November 1, 1997 |
| Robert Ginsburg | University of Miami | December 1, 1997 |
| Luther Williams | National Science Foundation | February 1, 1996 |
| Keith Solomon | University of Guelph | February 1, 1996 |
| Leroy Hood | University of Washington | March 1, 1996 |
| Arnold Arons | Univesity of Washington | April 1, 1996 |
| Shelia Tobias | Author | April 1, 1996 |
| Crow, James F. | University of Wisconsin | January 1, 1995 |
| Hendee, William R. | Medical College of Wisconsin | March 1, 1995 |
| Lipscomb Jr., William | Harvard University | April 1, 1995 |
| Olson, Eric | University of Texas | April 1, 1995 |
| Martin, Yvonne C. | Abbott Laboratories | April 1, 1995 |
| Bakker, Robert | University of Colorado | April 1, 1994 |
| Ratner, Buddy D. | University of Washington | April 1, 1994 |
| Sessler, Jonathon | University of Texas | October 1, 1994 |
| Wolynes, Peter G. | University of Illinois | February 1, 1993 |
| Hubbard, Ruth | Harvard University | March 1, 1993 |
| Simpson, Evan R. | University of Texas | April 1, 1993 |
| Krantz, Allen | Syntex Research, Canada | April 1, 1993 |
| Karplus, Martin | Harvard University | May 1, 1993 |
| Hauptman, Herbert | Medical Foundation of Buffalo | October 1, 1993 |
| Eldredge, Niles | American Museum of Natural History | October 1, 1993 |
| Karger, Barry L. | Northeastern University | November 1, 1993 |