Four UAlbany Faculty Named SUNY Distinguished Professors

a block of four photos of smiling men: Nathaniel Cady, David Smith, Mathias Vuille and Kehe Zhu.

Pictured clockwise from top left are Nathaniel Cady, Mathias Vuille, Kehe Zhu and David Smith.

ALBANY, N.Y. (May 15, 2025) — Four University at Albany professors have achieved SUNY’s most prestigious teaching honor.

Nathaniel Cady of the College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering, David Smith of the Massry School of Business, Mathias Vuille of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Kehe Zhu of the College of Arts and Sciences were elevated to Distinguished Professor this month.

Distinguished Professor is the highest academic rank in the State University of New York, conferred solely by the SUNY Board of Trustees. It is conferred upon SUNY faculty who have made significant contributions to the research literature of their fields and attained national or international prominence for their expertise.

The title ranks above full professor and has three co-equal designations: distinguished professor, distinguished service professor and distinguished teaching professor.

“All four of these faculty members epitomize academic excellence, serving as pioneers in their respective fields of research, and providing valuable instruction and mentorship to students,” said UAlbany Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Carol Kim. “We are tremendously proud of their significant contributions and applaud their promotion and addition to SUNY’s list of distinguished faculty.”

Nathaniel Cady

Nathaniel Cady is a professor and the associate dean for research at the College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering. His research focuses on the intersection of nanotechnology and biology and includes the development of novel biosensor technologies, and bio-inspired nanoelectronic devices, including resistive memory devices (memristors).

Cady's research leverages the advanced nanofabrication facilities at the Albany NanoTech complex, and his research group has successfully transitioned multiple technologies from the laboratory to both 200mm and 300mm wafer scale fabrication and integration.

Cady is one of the lead investigators and governance board members for the NORDTECH Department of Defense Microelectronics Commons Hub and works closely with industry partners on transitioning new technologies towards commercial applications.

He holds multiple patents and is also affiliated with The RNA Institute at UAlbany.

David Smith

David Smith is a professor and chair in the Department of Finance. He first came to the University in 1989 as an assistant professor of finance and became a full professor in 2017 and chair of the department in 2022.

Smith has published more than 25 refereed articles in journals including the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Financial Management, Journal of Portfolio Management, and Journal of Financial Research. He also has been the principal author of several successful proposals, including one that brought $1.6 million to establish the Center for Institutional Investment Management at UAlbany.

Smith is a recipient of the Financial Frontiers Award for Research Excellence from JanusINTECH and the Financial Planning Association. For four years, he was an associate editor of the Journal of Business Research and is the co-faculty advisor for UAlbany’s School of Business Investment Group.

Smith was named a Collins Fellow in 2024, which recognizes teaching faculty who have shown extraordinary devotion to UAlbany over a sustained period of time.

Mathias Vuille

Mathias Vuille is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences. His research interests are in past, current and future climate change in the tropics, with a focus on two regions: the tropical and subtropical Andes in South America and the mountains of East Africa.

Vuille has been involved in adaptation projects on behalf of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the Interamerican Development Bank and the World Bank, and served as a senior fellow for the U.S. State Department’s Program on Energy and Climate Partnerships in the Americas.

He has served as a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as associate editor for Geophysical Research Letters, and member of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union for Quaternary Research and the Science Leadership Council of the Mountain Research Initiative.

Vuille has participated in expeditions to the Canadian Arctic, Tanzania, Morocco, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Brazil. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles on climate change in South America.

Kehe Zhu

Kehe Zhu is a professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics and a fellow of the American Mathematical Society, the first professor at UAlbany to receive the distinction.

Zhu’s areas of research are functional analysis, complex analysis, and operator theory, key subjects of modern pure mathematics. He has published seven monographs and 135 papers in these areas. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation for many years. He is also currently the editor-in-chief of the New York Journal of Mathematics and has been on the editorial board of several international journals.

Zhu joined UAlbany in January 1989 as a tenure-track assistant professor. He moved through the ranks quickly, becoming a full professor in 1995. He won the 2007 UAlbany President’s Award for Excellence in Research.