PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 20, No. 14, Feb. 15, 2001

achievements
A report on honors, awards, offices and other outstanding achievements of faculty and staff members.

administration
The Office of Publications and Marketing won a bronze medal from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education in its 2000 Awards Competition. OPM was one of eight medalists from 143 entries in the Web site category. OPM entered the Office of Admissions and Records Web site it designed a year ago. Those working on the project were Michele Plante, OPM graphic designer, and Stephanie Smith, who was an OPM project manager at the time; and Jo Flessner-Filzen, head of the HTML production team, OAR.

agricultural, consumer and environmental sciences
Stephen P. Havera, a scientist in the department of natural resources and environmental sciences and director of the Forbes Biological Station of the Illinois Natural History Survey, was honored by the Wildlife Society as the recipient of its 2000 Wildlife Publications Award for his comprehensive book on Illinois waterfowl. "Waterfowl of Illinois: Status and Management" was published last year by the Illinois Natural History Survey. The award was presented during the society’s seventh annual conference in Nashville, Tenn.

aviation
Henry L. Taylor, director of the Institute of Aviation and the commercial operations of the UI-Willard Airport, was awarded the 2000 Illinois Public Airports Association President’s Award at the 2000 Annual Fall Conference of the association. The award was presented by Roger C. Marquardt, IPAA president, "in recognition of dedicated service to the citizens of Illinois through the promotion of aviation education."

communications
"A Latina in the Land of Hollywood and Other Essays on Media Culture, a book by Angharad Valdivia, professor in the Institute of Communications Research, has been published by University of Arizona Press.

education
A recent article published in Research in Developmental Disabilities ranked the UI as the eighth leading research institution in the world. The number of peer-reviewed articles published during the past 20 years served as the primary criterion. Leading researchers on this campus cited in the article include Susan Fowler, dean of the College of Education; Laird Heal, professor emeritus of special education; Janis Chadsey, professor of special education; and Robert Sprague, professor emeritus of kinesiology. Notably, Frank Rusch, professor of special education, was identified as the 16th most productive researcher in the field of mental retardation during the past 20 years.

engineering
Darrell F. Socie, professor of mechanical engineering, received the Wöhler Medal at the 13th European Conference on Fracture held in Spain. The biennial award, given by the European Structural Integrity Society, recognizes outstanding research related to the fatigue of metals.

The department of electrical and computer engineering honored four professors as the first recipients of several new named professorships. Richard E. Blahut was named the Henry Magnuski Professor. Wen-mei Hwu and Panganamala Kumar were named the first Franklin W. Woeltge Professors. Milton Feng was named the Nick Holonyak Jr., Professor. All were honored at an investiture ceremony and reception in October.

fine and applied arts
Donna Cox, professor of art and design, was invited to give a plenary talk at the 32nd annual International Visual Literacy Association Conference at Iowa State University. The theme of the conference was "Exploring the Visual Future: Art, Design, Science and Technology."

Ian Hobson, CAS professor of music and Swanlund endowed chair of music, recently conducted the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra for the Van Cliburn Foundation "Salute to ’62" concert. Hobson also was selected to serve on the jury for the 2001 Cleveland International Piano Competition. The competition will be held at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Severance Hall.

Paul Kruty, professor of architecture, was invited to present a lecture at the Prairie Arts and Crafts Conference held at Millikin University. The lecture was titled "Louis Sullivan’s Search for an ‘Expressive, Synthetic and Virile’ Architectural Ornament for the Modern Age."

Becky Nettl-Fiol, professor of dance, was awarded a grant from the UI Research Board for her research project in somatic practices in the teaching of technique.

Cynthia Oliver, professor of dance, was named "Outstanding Young Choreographer" in the German dance periodical Ballet Tanz.

Jeffery Poss, professor of architecture, received a Design Honor Award from the Central Illinois Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for the design and construction of a meditation hut in Urbana.

liberal arts and sciences
Peter Beak, professor of chemistry, was selected to receive the Paul G. Gassman Distinguished Service Award of the American Chemical Society’s Division of Organic Chemistry. Beak was cited for his recent work in developing the endocyclic restriction test as a general approach to the determination of the stereochemistry of substitutions at nonstereogenic atoms.

Vernon Burton, professor of history, is the president-elect of the Agricultural History Society. The society publishes Agricultural History, the premier journal in rural studies. Burton also was elected to a three-year term on the Executive Committee of the Social Science History Association.

Lawrence Hanks, professor of entomology, received the 2000 Entomological Society of America recognition award in urban entomology at the society’s annual meeting in Montreal.

Rosilie Hernandez-Pecoraro, professor of Spanish, was awarded the 1999-2000 Monticello College Foundation Fellowship for Women in residence at the Newberry Library.

Douglas G. Simpson, chair and professor of statistics, was named a fellow of the American Statistical Association during the ASA presidential address at the Joint Statistical meetings in Indianapolis. "Election to fellow of the ASA is a singular honor that recognizes outstanding individual contributions to the advancement of statistics," said Norman Breslow, chairman of the committee on fellows.

Andrew Wang, professor of biochemistry, of cell and structural biology and of chemistry, and Cheng Chin-chuan, professor emeritus of Chinese and of linguistics, were recently elected to the Assembly of Members of Academia Sinica, the highest research institute in Taiwan.

Norbert Wiley, professor emeritus of sociology, received the Heroes Recognition Award from the Bay Area Metropolitan Elections Committee, a California organization promoting the civil rights of gays and lesbians. He also gave the Bonwit-Heine lecture on film theory at the University of California, Berkeley.

veterinary medicine
Val Beasley, professor of veterinary biosciences, presented the keynote address, "Purposeful Careers for Veterinarians in Wildlife and Ecosystem Health," at the Special Species Symposium 2000, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

Paul Cooke, Larry Hansen and Sue Schantz, professors of veterinary biosciences, presented invited lectures at a meeting, "Recent Advances in the Environmental Toxicology and Health Effects of PCBs" in Lexington, Ky.

Rex Hess, director of the Center for Microscopy and Imaging and professor of veterinary biosciences, presented an invited lecture, "Estrogens and Male Reproduction," at the first European Congress of Andrology. Hess also was an invited member of the Fourth Annual Workshop titled "Frontiers in Estrogen Action."

Lois Hoyer, professor of veterinary pathobiology, gave an invited presentation titled "Detection and Comparative Analysis of Differential Gene Expression" at the Microbial Functional Genomics Symposium.

Ronald D. Smith, director of instructional computing and professor of pathobiology, received an Excellence Award from the American Distance Education Consortium. Smith was honored for his work using the Web for education in veterinary medicine and food safety.

Ted Valli, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine; E.J. Ehrhart, professor of veterinary pathobiology; and Barbara Kitchell, professor of veterinary biosciences, were invited to present at the National Institutes of Health symposium on "Cells of the Marginal Zone: Origins, Function and Neoplasia." The presentation was on marginal zone lymphomas in dogs.