Tao earns 2025 Alumni Professorship
Dr. Ya-Xiong Tao, professor of physiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, is one of six new Auburn University Alumni Professors.
Awarded annually by the Auburn Alumni Association, the professorship recognizes tenured faculty who demonstrate excellence in research, teaching and service. Recipients are selected on the basis of their leadership and impact across at least two aspects of the university’s core mission areas. Tao will be recognized at the 2025 Endowed Faculty Recognition Ceremony, hosted by the Office of the Provost.
An internationally recognized scholar in molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying metabolic disorders, Tao’s body of work includes 160 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals, 56 research abstracts and 10 edited books. During his more than 35-year career focusing on therapeutics for inherited and acquired forms of obesity, he has served on 20 editorial boards and held similar roles with 23 academic journals.
Tao’s publications have been cited more than 7,300 times and he has earned the Auburn Author Award 10 times from the Graduate School and Auburn University Libraries.
Tao has also trained more than 70 students and served on committees for more than 25 graduate students. He earned the 2021 Professor of the Year Award from the Auburn University Honors College, as well as the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award from the College of Veterinary Medicine in 2011 and 2024.