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Achievements
INSIDE ILLINOIS, Aug. 2, 2012 [ Email | Share ]
IN THIS ISSUE: ACES | ENGINEERING | FACILITIES AND SERVICES | MEDIA | PUBLIC AFFAIRS | UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
ACES
Wayne Banwart, the former interim associate dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences who retired in 2008, received the NACTA Murray Brown Leadership award at the annual conference of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture in June. Banwart was cited for contributing to the educational offerings at the UI for more than 32 years.
Jeffrey O. Dawson, a professor emeritus of forest biology in the department of natural resources and environmental sciences, was selected as a fellow of the Society of American Foresters. The designation recognizes Dawson’s service to the society and to the profession of forestry.
ENGINEERING
Michael B. Bragg, the interim dean of the College of Engineering and a professor of aerospace engineering, has been appointed to the Aeronautics Committee of the NASA Advisory Council. This committee reports to the NASA Administrator and is the major committee advising NASA on aeronautics programs and policy.
James J. Coleman, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been named a fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics. Coleman, a researcher in the Micro and Nanotechnology Lab, was recognized for achievements in quantum well and strained-layer semiconductor lasers. He was one of 75 fellows elected to the society this year.
Lynford L. Goddard, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the recipient of the 2012 Ronald W. Pratt Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award presented annually by the department. Goddard’s research focuses on photonic devices. A researcher in the Micro and Nanotechnology Lab, Goddard and his group are developing light and lasers for communication and sensing.
Yi Lu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, received a CAREER Award, given by the National Science Foundation, to tackle the problem of dynamic scalability by designing low-complexity algorithms for Web services, data management, and measurement and monitoring in the “cloud.” Lu is a researcher in the Coordinated Science Lab. The CAREER program awards junior faculty members who excel.
Scott Olson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been selected to receive a 2012 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers “for pioneering research on liquefaction, particularly related to the shear strength and normalized shear strength of liquefied soils using field case history back-analysis, laboratory element testing and centrifuge testing.”
Glaucio H. Paulino, a Donald Biggar Willet Professor in Engineering in the department of civil and environmental engineering, has received the IACM Fellows Award 2012 from the International Association of Computational Mechanics. The award recognizes individuals with a distinguished record of research, accomplishment and publication in areas of computational mechanics and demonstrated support of the IACM through membership and participation in the association, its meetings and activities.
Christopher Rao, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is the recipient of the 2012 Outstanding Young Research Award from the Computing and Systems Technology Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He is being recognized for “contributions to control theory and multi-scale simulation and their application to biological systems.” Rao’s research group utilizes both computational and experimental approaches to discover how cells process information, and how to engineer these pathways for novel medical and industrial applications.
FACILITIES AND SERVICES
Peter W. Varney, the director of transportation and automotive services for Facilites and Services, was among 31 fleet professionals to earn the Certified Automotive Fleet Manager designation in 2011-12. Recognized as the premier certification program within fleet management, the program certifies expertise in every aspect of the job. Varney and other members of the 2011-12 graduating class are recognized in the July/August issue of FLEETSolutions magazine. Varney is responsible for managing several self-supporting UI departments that provide transportation and vehicle maintenance services to faculty and staff members.
MEDIA
Charles Ledford, a professor of journalism, was honored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication with a Best of the Web award in the Individual Innovation Projects category. His project, “Overtown: Inside/Out,” is an attempt to engage the residents of Overtown, Fla., in an interactive dialogue about original videos about their town. The project, now online at http://overtowner.com, was created as part of his thesis for his master’s degree in multimedia journalism at the University of Miami.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
News Bureau photographer L. Brian Stauffer was honored by the University Photographers’ Association of America. His photo of a robin at rest on the back of a rack wagon on the university’s research farms received second place in the Campus Environment category for June in the association’s Monthly Image Competition.
The association is an international organization of college and university photographers concerned with the application and practice of photography as it relates to the higher education setting.
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Barbara Ford, a professor of library administration and the director of the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, has been selected to receive the 2012 Distinguished Service Award from the Chinese American Librarians Association. The association cited her contributions to international librarianship and called her an “inspirational and remarkable leader in many national and international library organizations.”
