Professor Laureates: Delphine Farmer and Eric Ross
Chemistry Professor Delphine Farmer and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Professor Eric Ross have been named the 2025 College of Natural Sciences Professor Laureates. This prestigious title is the college’s highest academic honor, awarded to faculty who have made outstanding contributions to research, teaching, mentoring, and outreach. The Professor Laureate title is held for three years and includes an honorarium and two years of research funding.
Delphine Farmer
Professor, Department of Chemistry
Delphine Farmer is an atmospheric chemist who began at CSU in 2011 and was promoted to full professor in 2022. Farmer received her B.Sc. in Chemistry (Honours with Great Distinction) from McGill University in Montreal, and her M.S. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Farmer’s research focuses on indoor and outdoor air quality and how the chemistry of air affects human health and the environment. Farmer runs the Fluxes and Atmospheric Reactivity Measurements and Experiments Research Group, which studies atmospheric chemistry in urban and rural settings, from ozone and organic aerosol pollution to the effects of wildfire smoke on trees and buildings. During her time at CSU, Farmer has published over 150 papers that have been cited over 10,000 times.
Her work has garnered support not only through $10.5 million in external research funding but also in prestigious awards. She was awarded the Frasch Foundation Award from the American Chemical Society and was named a Beckman Young Investigator, recognitions that are only given to a handful of US researchers each year. Farmer has also established herself as a reputable source of information on both national and local levels. She was cited in the New York Times, sharing best cleaning practices during the COVID-19 pandemic, and offered insight regarding her research on wildfire smoke and indoor air quality with outlets such as the Colorado Sun and Denver7.
Farmer’s excellence is not limited to her research – she’s also a thoughtful mentor and educator. She has mentored 10 Ph.D. students and 16 highly productive postdoctoral scholars and research scientists. She has taught a variety of courses, from General Chemistry to new advanced courses in environmental and analytical chemistry. She initiated an undergraduate environmental chemistry course that is popular among students and often at capacity.
Her service initiatives include sitting on the School of Global Environmental Sustainability Curriculum Committee, Chemical Safety Committee, Faculty Grievance Panel, and chairing Chemistry’s Safety Committee.
Eric Ross
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Eric Ross joined CSU in 2005 and earned the rank of professor in 2017. Ross earned a B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Mayo Clinic.
As an infectious disease researcher, Ross has made key contributions to understanding protein misfolding and aggregation. Numerous diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, are associated with protein aggregation. Prion diseases are a subset of protein aggregation diseases in which the protein aggregates are infectious. Currently, all known human prion diseases are incurable and invariably fatal. Ross has helped define the features of proteins that allow them to form infectious protein aggregates. More recently, his lab has focused on defining the normal functions of prion-like proteins. His research has accumulated over $8 million in funding from six different agencies. Ross has published 56 articles in high-impact journals, including Nature and Nature Communications, and has been cited over 5,000 times.
Ross is described by his colleagues as a “thoughtful leader.” In his 20 years at CSU, Ross has employed a number of undergraduate students in his lab, about half of whom have co-authored a scientific paper during their research experience. At the graduate level, Eric has mentored seven graduate students and several postdoctoral fellows. He has taught large LIFE curriculum courses and co-developed a new course called Biochemistry of Disease. He also designed a group independent study class to increase students’ access to research experiences. He consistently mentors undergraduate students in the Biochemistry Senior Thesis course, where students work individually with a faculty mentor to perform a literature review and develop a review-style thesis.
In terms of service, Ross co-developed Biochemistry is Elementary, a seven-week outreach program teaching 5th graders basic concepts in biochemistry and genetics. In the BMB Department, he has served as both Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies. He also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Biological Chemistry and has served on the grant review panels for the National Institutes of Health.
