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Faculty Honors 2012
LAS professors bring honor and recognition to the college.
January | February | March | April | May
May
Elizabeth Ainsworth, professor of plant biology, received the Charles Albert Shull Award for her research on current and potential impacts of global and environmental change on both natural and managed plant ecosystems.
Stephen Long, professor of plant biology, received the Charles F. Kettering Award for his discoveries of the responses of photosynthesis, changes in the physical environment, and the role of photosynthesis in mitigating climate change.
Justin S. Rhodes, professor of psychology, was named a 2012-13 Helen Corley Petit Scholar for his extraordinary academic record. Rhodes’s research explores how genes and environment affect voluntary behavior.
Stephen Marshak, professor of geology and director of the School of Earth, Society, and Environment, received the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He thrives by engaging students in the excitement and mystery of studying Earth. Whether students are assigned to sketch some of the visible geology, traverse rocks, or follow dry creek beds, they have come to appreciate Marshak’s dedication to anchoring conceptual knowledge to experiences inside and outside the classroom.
Eric Snodgrass, an instructor in atmospheric sciences, received the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He has “revolutionized” online delivery of large-enrollment courses, and his work has served as a model for instruction across campus. Snodgrass’ innovations in the classroom include the use of multimedia resources, the incorporation of real-world challenge problems and online discussion boards.
Bruce C. Berndt, a professor of mathematics, received the Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring. Berndt has mentored many graduate students throughout his career. The 29 students who have earned their degrees under his direction have taken positions at research institutions around the world. He regularly collaborates with former students on publications and projects, an uncommon practice in the field.
April
Alex Shakar, professor of English, was named a winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction for Luminarium. Luminarium focuses on the roles of technology and spirituality in shaping people’s reality.
Clare Crowston, professor of history, was chosen as a Collaborative Research Fellow by the American Council of Learned Societies. Crowston’s work focuses on labor history and the history of women and gender. The fellowship program brings together 15 scholars from different institutions, disciplines, and countries whose varied perspectives will yield advances in research.
Ed Diener, the Joseph R. Smiley Distinguished Professor of Psychology, was named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest honorary societies in the nation whose members also included Albert Einstein, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Benjamin Franklin. Diener was selected for his pioneering contributions to psychological science. Much of his career has been devoted to measuring well-being and understanding the cultural, personality, and economic factors that influence it.
Sydney Cameron, professor of entomology, has been selected for a Fulbright Specialists project in environmental science at the National University of Comahue in Argentina. Cameron will spend three weeks in Argentina, giving undergraduate and graduate lectures and hands-on workshops for graduate students in the genetics curriculum on cutting-edge research in molecular population genetics. She will also give a keynote presentation on South American bumble bee conservation.
Janice M. Juraska, professor of psychology, was named president-elect of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology. The society encourages research on the development of behavior in all organisms, including man, with special attention to the effects of biological factors operating at any level of organization.
March
Ruth Nicole Brown, professor of gender and women’s studies, received a 2012 Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement. This award recognizes faculty who have consistently applied their knowledge and expertise to issues of societal importance for the public good. Brown is the founder and co-organizer of the Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truth program, an after-school program that uses art-based activities to encourage self- and collective expression.
Christian Sandvig, professor of communication, received a 2012 Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement. This award recognizes faculty who have consistently applied their knowledge and expertise to issues of societal importance for the public good. Sandvig focuses his public engagement work on understanding the development of new communication infrastructures and their implications on public policy. He has created a long-term collaboration with Tribal Digital Village, an innovative philanthropic and government project to provide high-speed solar-powered Internet to Native lands in California.
Ping Ma, associate professor of statistics, won the Canadian Journal of Statistics 2011 Best Paper Award for a paper that he coauthored, titled “Nonparametric Regression with Cross-Classified Responses.” Ma’s research focuses on bioinformatics, functional data analysis, and geophysics.
Mara Wade, professor of Germanic languages and literatures, received a three-month fellowship as Senior Fellow des Landes Niedersachsen for research at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, the leading European research center for literatures and culture before 1800.
February
Ed Diener, professor of psychology, won the 2012 American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. Awardees are chosen for their lifetime achievement in scholarship and research, having made distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to basic research in psychology.
Lisa Lucero, professor of anthropology, was appointed to the American Anthropological Association’s new Task Force on Climate Change. The task force was created to bring anthropology’s contributions to issues of environmental concern into the spotlight. Lucero will promote and develop anthropological contributions to climate change-related issues with eight other members of the task force.
Neal Dalal, assistant professor of astronomy, has been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship, which is given to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as the next generation of scientific leaders. Dalal’s research investigates some of the most fundamental problems in cosmology. His recent work has focused on structures called dark matter halos, which are objects that harbor all of the stars and galaxies observed in the universe.
Sheng Zhong, an assistant professor in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, has been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship, which is given to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as the next generation of scientific leaders. Zhong researches causal relationships between gene regulation, cell differentiation, and cancer. His lab pioneered in systems biology modeling, stem-cell engineering, and single-cell technologies. Zhong is an associate professor of bioengineering, biophysics, and neuroscience. He is also affiliated with the Departments of Computer Science, Statistics, and Cell and Developmental Biology.
Vera Hur, assistant professor of mathematics, has been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship, which is given to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as the next generation of scientific leaders. Hur’s research focuses on the analysis of nonlinear partial differential equations which arises in physical contexts. In particular, she is interested in mathematical aspects of surface water waves and related moving boundary problems.
January
Clare Crowston, professor of history, has been awarded an ACLS Collaborative Research Fellowship to support her project, Learning How: Apprenticeship in France, 1675-1830, for 24 months beginning July 2012.
Craig Koslofsky, professor of history, was named the winner of this year’s Longman-History Today Book of the Year Award for his book Evening’s Empire: A History of the Night in Early Modern Europe. The award goes to the best first or second history book, as determined by a panel of judges. The judges described the book as “methodologically bold and brilliantly original,” according to History Today.
Kara D. Federmeier, professor of psychology, has been elected a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Fellow status is awarded to APS members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application.
John E. Hummel, professor of psychology, has been elected a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Fellow status is awarded to APS members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application.
Daniel J. Simons, professor of psychology, has been elected a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Fellow status is awarded to APS members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application.