Topeka ? The Kansas Board of Regents agreed Wednesday to authorize a five-year renewal of a Regents’ Distinguished Professorship for Blake Peterson, a professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy.

KU Chancellor Douglas Girod praised Peterson for what he called “groundbreaking” research in the field of drug delivery systems.

Since 1964, the state of Kansas has funded one Regents’ Distinguished Professorship at each of the state’s three research universities. The Legislature appropriates $21,000 for each professorship, a figure that has not changed in several years, Regents officials said.

The Board of Regents has established a policy of requiring comprehensive performance evaluations every five years.

Peterson earned a doctorate from UCLA in 1994. Before coming to KU in 2008, he was a tenured faculty member at Penn State University’s department of chemistry. He was named a research scholar of the American Cancer Society in 2003.

In 2013, he was named a fellow of The American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, for “distinguished contributions to the field of bio-organic chemistry,” according to information provided by the Board of Regents.