SUNY Elevates Five UAlbany Faculty Members to Rank of Distinguished Professor

ALBANY, N.Y. (May 11, 2026) — Five University at Albany faculty members have been awarded Distinguished Professorships, the highest academic rank in the State University of New York system.

The new Distinguished Professors are Jeanette Altarriba, Youqin Huang, Melinda Larsen, Shao Lin and Juan Andrés Melendez. The title ranks above full professor and is conferred by the SUNY board of trustees to faculty who have made significant contributions to research and scholarship in their respective fields, garnering national or international prominence.

“Dean Altarriba and professors Huang, Larsen, Lin and Melendez are not only leaders in their fields but, as teaching faculty, they share their expertise with the students they mentor in their classrooms and labs,” said UAlbany Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Carol Kim. “I am so proud of these colleagues and their promotion to Distinguished Professor.”

SUNY will hold a ceremony for all new Distinguished Professors in August. Portraits of UAlbany’s new awardees will join the wall of Distinguished Professors in the President’s Reading Room on the second floor of the University Library.

Jeanette Altarriba

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Jeanette Altarriba is a professor of psychology and a University at Albany Collins Fellow. Her research focuses on bilingual language processing, memory and emotion, and she has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and 9 books in her field.  She is also a fellow of numerous organizations in her field, such as the prestigious Psychonomic Society. In addition to leading the largest college at the University and continuing her research, she mentors students in the classroom, the laboratory and on the job market.

Youqin Huang

A professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Sustainability in the College of Arts and Sciences, Youqin Huang currently serves as UAlbany’s Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Success. In this role she oversees the appointment and promotion of non-tenure track faculty, faculty development programs, and University- and system-level awards and honors. Her research — on how major socioeconomic changes and government policies affect individuals, communities and marginalized populations — focuses on housing, migration and health and wellbeing. She has written and edited 10 books and published numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Melinda Larsen

Melinda Larsen is the Williams-Raycheff Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences and is affiliated with the RNA Institute, both in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her research focuses on understanding how organs repair following injury but fail to do so with disease or aging, with particular attention to extracellular matrix proteins in the salivary gland. Her research includes developing regenerative medicine approaches, including bioengineered scaffolds to reduce fibrosis, promote healing and restore gland function.

Shao Lin

Shao Lin is chair and professor of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the College of Integrated Health Sciences. She has over 30 years of experience in directing various environmental health studies in assessing health impacts of climate change, air pollution, extreme weather and natural disasters. Lin has served as principal investigator for more than 30 external grants and has published about 290 scientific papers. She has served on multiple national committees or advisory boards and has been selected as a NIH standing member for 10 years. 

Juan Andrés Melendez

Professor and chair of the Department of Nanoscale Science & Engineering in the College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering, J. Andrés Melendez also is affiliated with the RNA Institute and the Center for Healthy Aging and is a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor. His research is focused on free radical biology and cellular signaling, and on using nanobiotechnology for developing therapeutic and diagnostic technologies to limit degenerative diseases.