The Arizona Board of Regents voted Thursday to confirm the appointments of Janko Nikolich, Jiang Wu and Dennis Zaritsky as Regents Professors.

Regents Professor is the highest faculty rank at the University of Arizona, awarded to full professors whose exceptional achievements warrant national and international distinction. Appointments to this rank are limited to no more than 3% of the university's tenured and tenure-track faculty members.

Janko Nikolich
Bowman Professor and Head of the Department of Immunobiology in the College of Medicine – Tucson 

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Nikolich is an internationally recognized expert in immunobiology and aging. His research has transformed the understanding of how the immune system changes over time and contributed to the development of new strategies for strengthening immune resilience in older adults.

Supported by more than $105 million in grant funding, Nikolich's work focuses on areas such as T-cell function, immunity to infection in older adults, immune rejuvenation and immunity in metabolic disorders. He has published over 220 scientific papers and reviews describing his work.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nikolich developed a precise and effective blood test that helped track COVID-19 exposure and immunity. In 2021, he created the U of A Health Sciences Aegis Consortium to develop comprehensive pandemic-prevention solutions. In 2024, he was elected an International Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Nikolich is a popular instructor at the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson, known for his ability to translate complex immunological concepts into accessible and meaningful lessons. As co-director of the university's Center on Aging, his work has enhanced the university's reputation as a leader in biomedical research and education.

Jiang Wu
Professor, Department of East Asian Studies in the College of Humanities

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Wu is a leading scholar of Chinese and East Asian Buddhism. His research focuses on how the religion spread and how it has changed and been refined over many centuries. He has written multiple books on Chinese history, including "Leaving for the Rising Sun: Chinese Zen Master Yinuan and the Authenticity Crisis in Early Modern East Asia," which won the inaugural Tianzhu Book Prize for Excellence in Chan Studies from the Tianzhu Buddhist Network.

Wu received a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2023 to support his project "Scripture and Modernity: The Obaku Buddhist Canon in East Asia and the West," which examines a Buddhist text created in China and later reproduced in Japan. He was also awarded a Certificate of Congressional Recognition by U.S. Rep. Judy Chu of California and received the City of Rosemead, California, Award of Recognition in 2018.

Wu is director of the university's Center for Buddhist Studies, and his leadership has significantly contributed to the center's global reputation in the field.

Dennis Zaritsky
Professor, Department of Astronomy in the College of Science

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Zaritsky is an observational astronomer whose work focuses on galaxy structure and evolution. Recognized as one of the most innovative thinkers and researchers in the field of astronomy, his accomplishments include using dwarf galaxies to map the distribution of dark matter in the Milky Way and other galaxies.

Zaritsky's most influential work includes co-authoring the paper "A Direct Empirical Proof of the Existence of Dark Matter" and co-authoring a set of four papers providing the first maps showing the stars and dust in the two largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way: the Small Magellanic Cloud and Large Magellanic Cloud.

Zaritsky's many honors include the 2024 Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize from the American Astronomical Society, awarded biennially for an outstanding research contribution to astronomy or astrophysics. He also won the society's 1999 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize, awarded annually for outstanding achievement in observational astronomical research by a scientist under 36 years old, and a 2006 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

Zaritsky serves as deputy director of the university's Steward Observatory and recently completed a six-year term as chair of the Giant Magellan Telescope Science Advisory Council.