Stover designated as a Texas A&M University Distinguished Professor

Patrick Stover, Ph.D., vice chancellor of Texas A&M AgriLife, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, can now add Texas A&M University Distinguished Professor to his list of titles.

Stover, recognized in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, was one of seven Texas A&M scholars to earn the university’s highest faculty honor by being named a Distinguished Professor.

The 2020 class, including faculty from the College of Engineering, the College of Geosciences, the School of Law, and the College of Science, will be honored at a recognition event March 23 at the Doug Pitcock ’49 Texas A&M Hotel and Conference Center.

The designation identifies faculty members who are preeminent in their fields and who have made at least one landmark contribution to their discipline. Their research and advancements are considered central to any narrative of the field. Past recipients of the lifetime title participate in the selection process, growing the ranks of Distinguished Professors by just a handful of scholars each year.

Stover, whose doctoral degree is in biochemistry and molecular physics from the Medical College of Virginia, is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His research has focused on fundamental mechanisms underlying metabolism, nutrition and birth defects, and has informed global food fortification policies.

Stover joined The Texas A&M University System in 2018 when he was appointed Vice-Chancellor and Dean for Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M AgriLife. In this role, he oversees the organization’s teaching, research, extension and service missions.

He leads more than 5,000 employees within the Texas A&M System’s statewide agricultural agencies—AgriLife Research, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, the Texas A&M Forest Service, and the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory—as well as the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. As dean of the college, Stover leads more than 7,800 students and 400 faculty members in 15 academic departments.

“We are proud to bestow the title of University Distinguished Professor to you in recognition of your contributions to excellence at Texas A&M University through the example you set in your research, teaching and service,” Provost and Executive Vice President Carol A. Fierke said. “Distinguished Professorships celebrate the high caliber and global significance of scholarship underway at Texas A&M University.”