Three outstanding faculty members have been selected as the 2025-26 Benedum Distinguished Scholars in recognition of their exceptional research and scholarly activity.
Honorees include the following:
• Brian Boone, associate professor of surgical oncology in the School of Medicine.
• Donald Adjeroh, professor and associate chair of computer science in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources.
• Chris Scheitle, professor of sociology in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.
The Benedum Distinguished Scholars Awards, funded by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, are awarded annually to faculty engaged in “creative research” in as many as four categories: behavioral and social sciences, biosciences and health sciences, humanities and the arts, and physical sciences and technology.
This year, exceptional scholars were identified in three of the four categories.
“Each year, I continue to be impressed by the caliber of our faculty and their research,” Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Paul Kreider said. “This year’s Benedum Distinguished Scholars Award recipients reflect the very highest ideals of scholarship, discovery and service. Their dedication to advancing knowledge and creating meaningful impact inspires our students, colleagues and the world beyond campus.”
Boone is the recipient of the 2025-26 Benedum Distinguished Scholar in Biosciences and Health Sciences for his work focused on pancreatic cancer.
Difficult to treat, pancreatic cancer tumors often create a strongly immunosuppressive environment, preventing the body’s immune system and many immunotherapies from working effectively. Over the past eight years, Boone has led research to better understand how the immune system contributes to pancreatic cancer growth and resistance to treatment, while also developing new therapeutic strategies.
A key focus of his work is on neutrophil extracellular traps, which are web-like structures released by immune cells. Boone’s research showed that NETs actively promote cancer progression by suppressing immune responses, increasing fibrosis, enhancing blood clotting, and aiding metastasis. This discovery helped explain why pancreatic cancer resists immunotherapy and identified NET-related pathways as promising treatment targets.
More recently, Boone has collaborated with Slawomir Lukomski, professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, to explore how bacteria and the microbiome can be used to counteract immune suppression. Their team found that certain bacterial proteins, such as one derived from streptococcus, can block harmful NET formation and reduce tumor growth in animal models. They also developed safer approaches to treatment using engineered bacteria to deliver these beneficial proteins and minimally invasive robotic surgery.
Boone’s work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, and he has had sustained success in securing competitive research funding. He has progressed from early-career support to major national awards, including serving as co-principal investigator on a $2.25 million dollar grant from the Lustgarten Foundation. His funding portfolio also includes support from the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society, demonstrating both the strength and continued growth of his research program.
Adjeroh is honored as the 2025-26 Benedum Distinguished Scholar in Physical Sciences and Technology for his impact on the development of artificial intelligence and its use in health care.
Adjeroh’s early research was influential in creating today’s AI systems, including technologies behind tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. A key part of his work has focused on machine learning, especially how models can learn useful patterns from data and apply what they learn to new problems. Adjeroh made important contributions to transfer learning, which allows AI systems trained in one area to be adapted to another. Later in his career, he developed advanced methods for generating better data representations, including work on adversarial autoencoders. These ideas are now widely used in modern generative AI systems, including those that create or transform images and other content.
Beyond core AI theory, Adjeroh’s work has also had a strong real-world impact on digital health. He developed new ways to measure health and aging using simple body measurements, which were widely adopted and superior to older methods like body mass index. Adjeroh has also contributed to areas such as drug safety and medical image analysis by adapting machine learning to health care.
Widely recognized by the global research community, Adjeroh’s work has been published in top scientific venues and has been cited over 4,000 times since 2021. His research has funding from major national agencies, securing millions of dollars in competitive research grants and generating over $11 million as a principal or co-principal investigator. He has also mentored new scholars, graduating 14 doctoral and 41 master’s students while at WVU.
Scheitle is recognized as the 2025-26 Benedum Distinguished Scholar in Behavioral and Social Sciences for his research that examines the social structures and dynamics of religion and science in modern American society.
He has published extensively on topics investigating how the public understands the connection between religion and science, how religious beliefs influence attitudes toward science and scientists’ views on religion and navigating their own faith and scientific work.
Scheitle has also pioneered the study of religious discrimination and victimization. His work on this topic began with a National Science Foundation–funded study that surveyed places of worship about crime and hate-motivated attacks, including how they prepare for and respond to these events. His research illustrated the tension between religious congregations’ desire for security and their need to welcome new members to their communities. He has since expanded his work to study individuals’ personal experiences with religious bias and harm.
He has received nine major research grants totaling more than $3.6 million, including multiple awards from the National Science Foundation. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in leading sociology and social science journals and has written five academic books published by major university presses. Scheitle’s research is widely cited by other scholars, with nearly 5,000 citations, and he is ranked in the top one percent of social scientists for productivity.
Beyond academia, Scheitle’s work has been widely recognized in public discussions, especially following incidents of violence at places of worship. His work has reached large public audiences through media coverage and writing for outlets like The Conversation, NPR, Nature, Harper’s Magazine and USA Today.
Each Benedum Distinguished Scholar will receive a $5,000 professional development honorarium. The scholars will be recognized during a faculty and staff awards reception at Blaney House in April.