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LAS Alumni Information
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LAS Alumni Achievement Award Recipients
2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1993 | 1992 | 1991 | 1990 | 1989 | 1988 | 1987
2009
Myra Bluebond-Langner
AM '71, PhD '75, Anthropology
Myra Bluebond-Langner is nationally known for her work with seriously ill children, drawing upon her extensive interviews with families, physicians, and the children themselves. Read more about Myra Bluebond-Langner.
Lynn Hartmann
AB '70, English
Lynn Hartmann is one of the nation's most prominent experts in breast and ovarian cancer, working at Mayo Clinic as a researcher, clinician, director, and educator. Read more about Lynn Hartmann.
Brock Siegel
PhD '74, Chemistry
Brock Siegel has been at the center of the genetic engineering revolution for most of his career, helping to map the human genome and working on some of the world's top-selling DNA-analysis instruments. Read more about Brock Siegel.
Fred Volkmar
BS '72, Psychology
Fred Volkmar is a leader in studying autism and related disorders, conducting major research projects, developing diagnosis guidelines, and writing books that help families, teachers, and others deal with the disorder. Read more about Fred Volkmar.
2008
Douglas L. Cole
PhD '74, Chemistry
Douglas Cole works at the invisible level, but he has seen highly visible results through the long line of life-changing pharmaceuticals that he has helped to develop. Read more about Douglas Cole.
William Edelstein
BS '65, Physics
William Edelstein has made key refinements to magnetic resonance imaging over the years, helping to make MRI one of the most vital and effective medical imaging systems. Read more about William Edelstein.
Govindjee
PhD '60, Biophysics
Govindjee is perhaps the world's most recognized photosynthesis researcher, conducting far-reaching work on one of life's most critical processes. Read more about Govindjee.
Carol D. Lee
BS '66, Teaching of Secondary School English
Carol D. Lee has devoted her career to finding ways to help minority students bloom in the midst of “whirlwinds” such as poverty, negative stereotypes, and a culture of low expectations. Read more about Carol Lee.
2007
Rachel Galun
PhD '55, Entomology
Rachel Galun, described as a "fearless woman," has been to Africa more than 60 times, fighting tropical illnesses transmitted by mosquitoes, ticks, and tsetse flies. She is a world-renowned expert on blood-feeding insects and helped establish the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya. Read more about Rachel Galun.
David A. Matthews
PhD '71, Chemistry
At the height of the AIDS epidemic, David Matthews became the scientific founder of Agouron Pharmaceuticals—a company that would go on to develop one of the most effective drugs to battle the HIV virus. His technique for drug development became a model for many pharmaceutical companies. Read more about David Matthews.
2006
James Benson
BA '68, Finance
James Benson scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro and bicycled across the United States through an innovative program that brings isabled and able-bodied athletes together in extraordinary challenges. Benson, a national leader in the insurance industry, founded this trailblazing organization known as T.E.A.M., or The Exceptional Athlete Matters. Read more about James Benson.
William Clark
PhD '64, Geography
William Clark is a native of New Zealand. So it is only fitting that this immigrant professor would become one of the world's leading experts on population movement. His research has influenced some of the most critical public policy issues of the ay, from busing to illegal immigration. Read more about William Clark.
Dennis Houston
BS '74, Chemical Engineering
Dennis Houston, a small-town boy from Illinois, went on to become a leader in one of the largest companies in one of the biggest industries in the world. Houston is responsible for ExxonMobil's oil tanker fleet, pipeline business, tank farms, and the oil going through the company's refineries. Read more about Dennis Houston.
William Wechter
BS '53; MS '54, Chemistry
With nearly 50 patents to his name and after almost 50 years in the pharmaceutical industry, William Wechter's work is not over. He and a close-knit group of fellow scientists founded EncorePharma, a pharmaceutical company that has one of the leading new candidates for the treatment of Alzheimer's isease. Read more about William Wechter.
2005
Susan Avery
MS '74, Physics; PhD '78, Atmospheric Science
Dr. Avery has come a long way since being the first person to receive a doctorate in atmospheric science from the U. of I. After doing innovative research on the upper atmosphere, she directed one of the nation's leading interdisciplinary research centers. She currently is interim provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Colorado. Read more about Susan Avery.
Mohamed El-Ashry
MS '63; PhD '66, Geology
Dr. El-Ashry's accomplishments on global environmental issues have been escribed as "legendary." Among his many efforts, he led a program to reduce sulfur ioxide emissions at a large utility, built an influential think tank, and established the Global Environment Facility, a major funding institution for projects in eveloping countries. Read more about Mohamed El-Ashry.
George W. Parshall
PhD '54, Organic Chemistry
Dr. Parshall id groundbreaking work on chemical catalysts for uPont, where he also led an effort to evelop a safe alternative to ozone-destroying CFCs. But even after retirement, he idn't slow own. He has been advising the U.S. Army in its ongoing effort to safely estroy chemical weapons. Read more about George Parshall.
Robert Stuart
BS '43, Chemical Engineering
Mr. Stuart was CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the National Can Corporation. But he also managed to find the time and energy to lead and sometimes found ozens of service organizations. He was even founding chairman of a evelopment council that helps minority-owned companies obtain billions of ollars worth of business annually. Read more about Robert Stuart.
2004
Arthur W. Galston
MS '42; PhD '43, Plant Biology
Dr. Galston is a pioneering plant biologist, leading breakthroughs in the area of light and plant evelopment. He also shed light on some of the toughest issues in bioethics in our time, beginning with the Agent Orange controversy in the 1960s. Read more about Arthur Galston.
Richard E. Heckert
AM '47; PhD '49, Chemistry
Fortune magazine has escribed r. Heckert as "gregarious, relaxed, and unflappable...a 6-foot-3, friendly bear of a boss." With his people-person skills, and managerial and scientific knowledge, he eventually became CEO of uPont, one of the largest companies in the world. Read more about Richard Heckert.
John W. McDonald
AB '43, Political Science; JD '46, Law
A 1994 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Ambassador John McDonald has had a far-ranging career. His skills in multilateral iplomacy have taken him from post-war Berlin and the Middle East to ambassadorships under President Carter and President Reagan. He is also the irector for the Institute for Multi-Track iplomacy. Read more about John McDonald.
2003
Fakhri Bazzaz
MS '60; PhD '63, Plant Biology
Fakhri Bazzaz is among the nation's most preeminent ecologists. He is Mallinckrodt professor of biology at Harvard whose research has forged the way in the world's ever widening understanding of plant ecology. He was among the first scientists to recognize how rising carbon ioxide levels were affecting the health of natural ecosystems. Read more about Fakhri Bazzaz.
Joseph LaPalombara
AB '47; AM '50, Political Science
Joseph LaPalombara is considered the country's eminent scholar on Italian politics whose interest in labor unions led him into the field of comparative politics where he made an art of analyzing the relationships between politics and economics. This former high school ropout graduated Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Pi, and Bronze Tablet from the University of Illinois. He later became Michigan State University's youngest epartment chair at age 32. Read more about Joseph LaPalombara.
2002
Roxanne Decyk
AB '73, English Literature
Roxanne ecyk is among the handful of women who have reached the upper echelons of corporate America. As a senior vice president of corporate affairs and human resources at Shell Oil Company, she oversees all U.S. media relations, communications, advertising, government relations, and human resources for this energy giant. Read more about Roxanne Decyk.
John Law
PhD '57, Biochemistry
John Law is a pioneer in the field of molecular entomology-a iscipline that issects insects, gene by gene, to understand the intricate biological pathways that govern everything from how ants alert each other to anger to how cockroaches produce eggs. Read more about John Law.
Clifford Saper
BS, MS '72, Biology
Over the past three ecades, Clifford Saper has been recognized as one of the world's foremost neuroanatomists for his work in mapping much of the brain's complex circuitry. His neural maps have led to advances in treating obesity, Parkinson's isease, Alzheimer's and schizophrenia. Read more Clifford Saper.
2001
Dr. Constantine Curris
AM '65, Political Science
Dr. Curris has served as past-president of Clemson University, the University of Northern Iowa, and Murray State University. He is currently serving as president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, where he advocates for over 15 million students and three-quarter million staff and faculty. Read more about Constantine Curris.
Daniel R. Reedy
AM '59; PhD '62 Spanish
Dr. Reedy has irected more than 40 octoral issertations in his specialty field of Spanish-American literature and Latin American studies. His contributions to the Library of Congress' Handbook of Latin American Studies have influenced scholars worldwide. r. Reedy's ongoing and pivotal role in the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference is widely acknowledged as vital and indispensable. Read more about Daniel Reedy.
Phillip Sharp
PhD '69 Chemistry
Dr. Sharp founded the world's oldest independent biotechnology company, Biogen. Biogen is a global leader in eveloping rugs for health care through genetic engineering. In 1993, r. Sharp was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his iscovery of introns, which led to a landmark iscovery in understanding how biological information is organized. Read more about Phillip Sharp.
2000
Eugene Hamilton
AB '55, General Curriculum
The Honorable Eugene Hamilton, chief judge of the Supreme Court of the istrict of Columbia and social welfare advocate, has created omestic violence units, streamlined adoption systems, and been a foster parent to more than 40 children. Read more about Eugene Hamilton.
Philip Horwitz
MS '55; PhD '57, Chemistry
Dr. Horwitz eveloped a "chemical separations" technique that is used worldwide in such iverse applications as analyzing the lunar surface to cleaning up nuclear wastes. His technique reduced, by a factor of more than 100, the amount of radioactive wastes that has to be isposed of in geologic repositories. Read more about Philip Horwitz.
Seemon Pines
MS '49; PhD '51, Chemistry
Seemon Pines made it possible to commercially synthesize a staggering number of life-enhancing therapeutic rugs, such as cortisone. His work not only eased the suffering of millions but also rewrote the efinition of what is achievable in chemical synthesis. Read more about Seemon Pines.
1999
Ed Cupp
PhD '69 Entomology
Dr. Cupp is a professor and head of the epartment of Entomology a Auburn University. He eveloped an environmentally safe model to control and possibly eradicate river blindness-a isease transmitted by the black fly. Read more about Ed Cupp.
James H. Davis
BS '54, Psychology
James Davis is professor emeritus of psychology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He analyzed the process groups go through in reaching consensus and how ifferent combinations of talents and interests influence their performance. His research has influenced business practices and Supreme Court ecisions. Read more about James Davis.
Carol Stack
AM '68; PhD '72, Anthropology
Dr. Stack is a cultural anthropologist. She wrote All our Kin and Call to Home, two books that examine the family structure and return migration of African-Americans. Her work opened the way for research on families and social structure in American communities. Read more about Carol Stack.
1998
Ann Cyphers
AB '72, Anthropology
Ms. Cyphers holds the position of senior research scientist at the Institute for Anthropological Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In 1994, Cyphers unearthed the 10th colossal head found in San Lorenzo.
Jean Driscoll
AB '91, Speech Communication; MS '93, Rehabilitation
Ms. riscoll set a world record after winning eight Boston Marathons and works with University of Illinois student-athletes with isabilities.
Walter L. Robb
MS '49; PhD '51, Chemical Engineering
Mr. Robb played a pivotal role in bringing computed tomography (CT) scanning and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) into common use as medical iagnostic tools.
1997
Clayton F. Callis
MS '46; PhD '48 Chemistry
Dr. Callis is the retired irector of environmental operations at Monsanto Company and current consultant with Chelan Associates. His pioneering applications of nuclear magnetic resonance methods to the study of phosphorus compounds were of fundamental scientific importance and of great significance to Monsanto, a major producer of phosphorus-containing compounds, such as etergents.
Helena B. Lopata
BS '46; AM '47, Sociology and Philosophy
Professor emerita of sociology at Loyola University and irector emerita of the Center for the Comparative Study of Social Roles, Ms. Lopata studies social roles includes groundbreaking research on housewives, families and widowhood. A longtime scholar of Poland and Polish Americans, she has been honored by the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America and the Polish American Historical Association.
Arvarh E. Strickland
AM '53, Education; PhD '62, History
Dr. Strickland is professor emeritus of history at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He is one of the first two African Americans to earn a octorate in history at U of I, the first black member of faculty at UM-Columbia, and the first black president of Phi Alpha Theta, the professional fraternity for historians. He established the Black Studies Program at UM-Columbia.
1996
Stewart K. Dan
AB '62, Political Science
Mr. Dan is the NBC News Midwest Bureau chief and an award-winning news producer for NBC News' "Today" and "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw." He has received two EMMYs and the National Association of Professional Communicators Gabriel Awards in 1988 and 1989.
Ernest L. Eliel
PhD '48, Chemistry
Dr. Eliel is the W.R. Keenan Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He wrote the landmark paper introducing concept of stereochemistry, which led to etailed studies of conformational analysis of flexible ring systems. He also pioneered use of modern spectroscopic techniques to study such systems and published the efinitive texts on both subjects. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and recipient of many research and teaching awards.
Martin Gibbs
PhD '47, Plant Biology
Dr. Gibbs is the Abraham S. and Gertrude Burg Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University. His early work with the Atomic Energy Commission laid the foundation for understanding several fundamental pathways of carbon metabolism in plants, work that earned him membership in the National Academy of Sciences. As editor-in-chief of Plant Physiology for 30 years, he has changed the irection of the field toward more biochemical approaches.
Welton I. Taylor
AB '41, General Curriculum; MS '47 and PhD '48, Microbiology
A retired professor and consultant in clinical microbiology, r. Taylor eveloped new methods in the 1960s for the etection of Salmonella and Shigella, bacteria that caused widespread illness and eath throughout the world. Methods were adopted by the U.S. Food and rug Administration to assure safety of food products. Seminal work etermined the efficacy of antibiotics for treatment of clostridial infections such as tetnus, gas gangrene and botulism.
1995
Charles J. Graham
AB '50; AM '51; PhD '55, Political Science
The president emeritus of St. Cloud State University, r. Graham championed the value of a liberal arts and sciences education throughout career as university faculty member, epartment chair, academic ean, president and state system official in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He is the former president of St. Cloud State University and Hamline University.
Robert M. Nowak
PhD '56, Chemistry
Dr. Nowak is president and CEO of the Michigan Molecular Institute, a private, not-for-profit research institute edicated to science education and the spawning of new technological evelopments. He worked 37 years for ow Chemical Company, rising from position of chemist to that of irector of the Central Research epartment and chief scientist. At a time when the fundamental nature of polymer-based materials (plastics) was changing, Nowak's supervision of ow's research agenda enabled the company to remain an industry leader.
1994
James P. Collman
PhD '58, Chemistry
Dr. Collman is the aubert Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University. He is one of the founders of the field of bioinorganic chemistry, which uses metal atoms in biological molecules. He eveloped the synthetic analogE approach to studying metalloproteins and clarified the mechanisms underlying the reactions of molecules containing metal-carbon bonds. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1983, he was named California Scientist of the Year.
Robert W. Doubek
AB '66, Political Science
Mr. Doubek is an international consultant for PADCO Co. He co-founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. and coordinated passage of the act of Congress authorizing land for a Vietnam veterans memorial in Washington, .C.. He initiated a fundraising rive that raised $7 million from 500,000 onors in two years, and irected the memorial's esign competition which attracted 1,421 entries.
P. David Romei
AB '80, Philosophy
Mr. Romei is chairman of the board of the Birmingham Regional Arts Commission, legislative adviser on arts and culture to the state senate of Alabama, and member of the State Council on the Arts. He conducted a study of the Birmingham arts scene, commissioned by the mayor and city council, which led to legislation providing stable and equitable funding for the city's arts community. He is a published poet and award-winning photographer.
1993
Lucius Barker
AM '50; PhD '54, Political Science
Dr. Barker is the William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and president of the National Political Science Association. He is a leading scholar in judicial process/constitutional law and African-American politics and founding editor of the National Political Science Review, the annual scholarly publication of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.
Frank Pitelka
AB '39, Ecology, Ethology and Evolution
Dr. Pitelka is professor emeritus of integrative biology and associate irector of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California at Berkeley. As one of first scientists to explore animal social behavior in an ecological context, he eveloped a series of models that became one of the cornerstones of the sub-disciplines of behavioral ecology and sociobiology.
Susan Welch
AB '65; MA '66; PhD '70, Political Science
Dr. Welch is ean of College of Liberal Arts and professor of political science at Penn State University. As a xcholar of urban and ethnic politics and women in politics, she applied quantitative methods to examine the political consequences of ifferent types of electoral reform. Her book, American Government, is widely recognized for its coverage of minorities and women in political life.
1992
Robert S. Dietz
BS '37; MS '39; PhD '41, Geology
Dr. Dietz played a leading role in two important evelopments in the earth sciences: the establishment of plate tectonics as a new paradigm and the recognition of the importance of meteoric impacts on Earth and on the terrestrial planets. He is now professor emeritus of Geology at Arizona State University. Only scientist to receive both the Walter H. Bucher Medal of the American Geophysical Union and the Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America.
William L. Fash, Jr.
AB '76, Anthropology
Dr. Fash is a professor of anthropology at Northern Illinois University, where he irects the excavation and reconstruction of Copan, a Maya site in western Honduras, currently the largest archaeological exploration in the New World. He eveloped methods to reconstruct mosaic facades consisting of over 20,000 fragments ating 1,200 years ago.
Edwin G. Krebs
AB '40, Chemistry
This Nobel Prize-winning biochemist is a senior investigator emeritus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor emeritus in the epartments of Pharmacology and Biochemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is noted for his work in the basic principles, which govern cellular regulation, particularly covalent chemical modification, a mechanism employed in biological systems to control the activities of enzymes and proteins that regulate gene expression.
1991
Emmett Bashful
AM '47, Political Science
Dr. Bashful is chancellor emeritus, Southern University at New Orleans. He oversaw the growth of the university from one partially constructed building, 15 faculty and 158 freshmen to a campus offering 1,000 ifferent courses and/or sections and servicing some 3,200 students per semester. He was named one of the Ten Outstanding Citizens of New Orleans by the Institute for Human Understanding.
Michael H. Masser
AB '63, Political Science
A composer, Mr. Masser received the Spirit of America Award in 1988 for his song "The Greatest Love of All." He has also received the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Founding Patron Award, three Grammy nominations, and an Academy Award for the theme from the film Mahogany.
I. Garth Youngberg
PhD '71, Political Science
Dr. Youngberg is the co-founder and executive irector of the Institute for Alternative Agriculture, coordinating this program in non-traditional agricultural policy for the U.S. epartment of Agriculture. He is also the editor of the institute's Journal of Alternative Agriculture. He received the first MacArthur Foundation Fellowship awarded in agriculture.
1990
William H. Allaway
BS '49, Political Science, AM '51 Education
Dr. Allaway inaugurated first education abroad program at the University of California, subsequently enabling 17,000 U.C. students to study at 88 host institutions in 33 countries. The program negotiated between U.C. and Leningrad State University was the first irect exchange between a United States university and the former USSR. He was also instrumental in opening up Third World and Pacific rim countries to student exchange.
Robert T. Fraley
AB '74; MS '76; PhD '79, Biology/Microbiology
Dr. Fraley is the irector of the Plant Science Technology ivision at Monsanto. He is the senior author on the first publication emonstrating the introduction of foreign genetic material into plant systems. He shared the Monsanto 1986 Charles A. Thomas and Carroll A. Hochwalt Award for innovative basic science of the highest calibre and was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Lawrence J. Wilker
PhD '73, Speech Communication (Theatre)
Dr. Wilker is the president of the Playhouse Square Foundation, where he assumed leadership of a $37.6 million capital fund rive to restore and revitalize the Playhouse Square Center, which now ranks behind only New York's Lincoln Center and the San Francisco War Memorial in capacity. He also has had leadership roles in the Shubert Organization, the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Foundation, the Grand Opera House, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
1989
R. Byron Bird
BS '47, Chemical Engineering
This John . MacAuthur Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison co-wrote monumental textbooks on the transport phenomena and polymer melt rheology. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineers, foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, and recipient of the National Medal of Science.
Nancy Goodman Brinker
AB '68, Sociology
As founder and president of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Ms. Brinker has edicated her life to research and education on breast cancer. The legislation she initiated in Texas requiring mandatory insurance coverage of screening mammography for women over the age of 35 was a model forn other states.
William E. Taylor
AM '52, Sociology/Anthropology
This senior archaeologist at the National Museum of Civilization was formerly chief archaeologist and irector of the National Museum of Man (now the National Museum of Civilization, the Canadian equivalent of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History) and the Canadian War Museum. He is also irector of Canada's Social Science and Humanities Research Council.
1988
Leon Boothe
PhD '67, History
Dr. Boothe is president of Northern Kentucky University. He has been honored for scholarship (diplomatic history) and community service, serving on the boards of the Cincinnati Chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, and the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.
Rolando Hinojosa-Smith
PhD '69, Spanish
This Ellyn Clayton Garwood Centennial Professor in Creative Writing and English at the University of Texas is an accomplished author. He has written 10 novels with versions in English and Spanish, as well as numerous stories, poems, and essays. He earned Latin America's highest award for fiction, the Premio Casa e las Americas, and is a recipient of the National Award for Chicano Literature. He is one of the few U.S. citizens to be named a member of the Royal Spanish Academy for the Spanish Language.
1987
David L. Matlock
BS '62, Physics
Mr. Matlock is founder of Econics Corporation, a leader in the field of energy optimization, and Prelude Computer Corporation. He is a consultant on financing, eveloping, and marketing of new products and services.