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CLAS Awards
CLAS Faculty Win Recognition
Maria Giordina, associate professor of mathematics, is only the third person to win the Ruth I. Micheler Memorial Prize awarded by Cornell University and the Association of Women in Mathematics. The award will support her residency at Cornell to work on her research on infinite dimensional spaces.
Diane Lilo-Martin in linguistics and Gregory Anderson in ecology and evolutionary biology were named 2009 Board of Trustees Distinguished Professors, the highest honor for faculty at UConn.
Robert R. Birge, The Harold S. Schwenk, Sr., Distinguished Chair in Chemistry in CLAS, was awarded the 2009 Connecticut Medal of Science, the state’s highest award for scientists.
Two faculty members in CLAS were named finalists for the 2009 Women of Innovation awards given by the Connecticut Technology Council. Amy Howell, professor of chemistry, was cited for working broadly on issues of workforce development, such as recruiting and retaining underrepresented groups in math and science disciplines, and for developing a pilot master of science program with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals. Susanne Yelin, associate professor of physics, was cited for balancing her own research with passing on her passion for physics to her students.
Fakhreddin Azimi, professor of history, has been awarded the Mossadegh Prize for his recent book,The Quest for Democracy in Iran. The prize is a biennial award of the Geneva-based Mossadegh Foundation for outstanding work in Iranian studies.
The first CLAS Awards for Excellence in Research were given this spring to four faculty representing the humanities, natural sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences. The awards were to Mary Burke, assistant professor of English; Donald H. Les, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology; James F. Rusling, professor of chemistry; and Stephen L. Ross, professor of economics. The research awards will alternate by year with CLAS Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
Robert Gross, the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History, has been named the Honors Council Faculty Member of the Year for 2009.
Three faculty were chosen National Endowment for the Humanities fellows for 2009. Michael Lynch, professor of philosophy, will write a book defending an original theory of truth. Richard Wilson, the Gladstein Distinguished Chair in Human Rights and Director of the Human Rights Institute, will devote his fellowship to completing a book on three United Nations tribunals. Frank Costigliola, professor of history, will be an NEH fellow at the School of Historical Studies in the Instutute for Advanced Study at Princeton. He was also recently elected president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
Timothy Byrne, professor of geology, is one of four co-chief scientists for a drilling expedition this summer in a seismogenic zone off the coast of Japan, the international NanTroSEIZE project. A Japanese-built research vessel will collect sediment samples for study from beneath the sea floor. Byrne was also recently elected a fellow of the Geological Society of America.
Alexis Dudden, associate professor of history, has been selected as a Fulbright scholar to Japan by the Japan-United States Educational Commission. She will conduct research in Japan during the 2009-10 academic year on “Niigata and Japan’s Cold War.”
Diane Lillo-Martin, professor of linguistics, and Gregory Anderson, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, were named Board of Trustees Distinguished Professors, the University’s highest faculty honor, in the board’s 2009 awards.
Daniel Mulkey, assistant professor of physiology and neurobiology, won a $500 award and prize, the Neural Control and Autonomic Regulation Section Research Recognition Award for 2009, from the American Physiological Society at its Experimental Biology meeting.
Two journals edited by Sandra Shumway, research professor of marine sciences, were listed among the 100 most influential journals of biology and medicine over 100 years by the Special Libraries Association, a professional organization of more than 11,000 specialist librarians. The journals are: The Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology and The Journal of Shellfish Research.
Lawrence Goodheart, professor of history teaching at the Greater Hartford campus, has been selected as a Fulbright scholar to Turkey for the 2009-10 academic year.
Charles Super and Sara Harkness, professors of human development and family studies, were recognized for their “distinguished contributions to cultural and contextual factors in child development” at the Presidential Awards Ceremony at the biannual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.
Steve Kalb, adjunct professor of journalism, won the Undergraduate Student Government’s Educator of the Year award. Kalb is also a freelance radio reporter. Robert V. Gallo, professor of physiology and neurobiology, won USG’s award for advisor of the year.
Shayla C. Nunnally, assistant professor of political science, is the 2009 recipient of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists’ Fannie Lou Hamer Outstanding Community Service Award. The award is named in honor of the late civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who campaigned for racial justice in Mississippi.
Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, associate professor of history and director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, has been awarded a Howard Fellowship by the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation of Brown University. He will be a fellow at Brown’s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America where he will work on his upcoming book, “Bleeding Mexico White”: Race, Nation and the History of Mexico-U.S. Migration,” which is under contract with Duke University Press.
Newly elected members of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering from CLAS are J. Peter Gogarten, professor of molecular and cell biology; Pieter Visscher, professor of marine sciences and director of the Center for Integrative Geosciences; and Robert Whitlach, professor of marine sciences.
Ronald Sabatelli, professor and department head, Human Development and Family Studies, has been named editor of Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies. He was also named a fellow of the National Council on Family Relations. He has been a member of the council for 32 years.
David A. Kenny, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Psychology, is the 2009 winner of the Sells Award from the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology. The award is given annually to recognize an individual with “distinguished lifetime achievement” in the field. He is the 20th recipient of the award
James Rusling, chemistry professor, has won the American Chemical Society’s ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Electrochemistry. Rusling has an internationally recognized research program in electrochemistry and is known for research at the interfaces of chemistry, biology, and nanomaterials. He was recently awarded a Walton Fellowship by Science Foundation Ireland for a sabbatical leave at the National University of Ireland.
Newly elected members of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences from CLAS are Hans Dam, professor of marine sciences; Dipak Dey, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Statistics; Miguel Gomes, professor of modern and classical languages; Diane Lillo-Martin, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Linguistics; Clinton Sanders, professor of sociology; Stuart Sidney, professor of mathematics; and William Simonsen, professor of public policy.
Marine Sciences faculty won Apex Awards for publication excellence. Evan Ward, associate professor, won an award for the National Shellfish Association newsletter, and Sandra Shumway, research professor, for the Journal of Shellfish Research.
Nicholas Leadbeater, assistant professor of chemistry, and his research group recently won two “most cited papers” awards in international chemistry journals. One is for a paper in the journal Tetrahedron Letters, and the other is for the journal Tetrahedron. Among the co-authors on the papers were four undergraduate students working in Leadbeater’s laboratory, Sharon Pillsbury, Eric Shanahan, Victoria Williams, and Tamera Mack. Doctoral candidates who were co-authors were Riina Arvela and Chad Kormos.
Oguz Yigiterhan, a postdoctoral associate in marine sciences, is the author of a paper ranked fifth in the “hottest articles” cited by ScienceDirect for July-September 2008. He was also the co-author of a paper ranked seventh in the Top 25.
Deborah A. Kendall, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, is a new fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Preston Britner, associate professor of human development and family studies, was presented with the 2008 Award for Legislative Advocacy by the Connecticut Youth Service Administration. Since 2006, he has been co-chair of the Families with Service Needs Advisory Board of the Connecticut legislature.
Leslie Snyder, professor of communication sciences, won the Everett M. Rogers award for outstanding contributions to advancing the study and/or practice of public health communication from the American Public Health Association’s Public Health, Education, and Health Promotion Section.
Reuben Baron, professor emeritus of psychology, and David Kenny, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Psychology, were honored for having the most cited paper published in 42-year history of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Richard A. Wilson, the Gladstein Professor of Human Rights and director of the Human Rights Institute, has been asked to serve on the Connecticut Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Members are appointed for two-year terms.
Laura Donorfio, assistant professor of human development and family studies, will receive the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education Distinguished Teaching Award for 2008.
Kentwood Wells, professor and department head of ecology and evolutionary biology, is the author of The Ecology and Behavior of Amphibians, which was chosen as the best single volume reference published in 2008 in the biological and life sciences by the Association of American Publishers. The book also was chosen as an outstanding academic title in science by Choice magazine.
Kathleen Segerson, the Philip E. Austin Chair in Economics, is the new president of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
John Davis, the Emliana Pasca Noether Chair in Modern Italian History, was named a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in London.
CLAS Students Collect Honors
Three students were selected for the CLAS Outstanding Senior Women Awards. They are: Charlayne McStay, a chemistry major; Kaitlyn Widlak, an American studies major, and Joelle Budzinsky, a history major.
Fourth-year PhD student Amanda Wendt won a Fulbright Scholarship for her research into the roosting and foraging behavior and seed dispersal habits of a species of bat. The ecology and evolutionary biology student is participating in a large field study at La Selva Biological Station in northern Costa Rica.
Fernando Alfonso, CLAS ’09, an English major, was awarded a Newhouse Graduate Newspaper Fellowship and Apprenticeship for Minorities to attend graduate school at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, where he will be in the magazine, newspaper, and online journalism program. He was one of two students chosen from 45 applicants.
Corey Schmitt, CLAS ’11, a political science major, was elected to a two-year term as the undergraduate student representative on the UConn Board of Trustees. Richard Colon, a PhD candidate in anthropology, is the graduate student representative.
Sylvie Tchumtchoua, a graduate student in statistics, is a 2009 recipient of the Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Award.
Brien T. Buckman, CLAS ’12, was elected to a two-year term as a student director on the University of Connecticut Foundation Board of Directors. The Foundation board oversees planning and implementation of fund-raising activities at UConn, investment of endowment, and administration of the Foundation. Buckman is a political science and philosophy major and a member of the Undergraduate Student Government.
Jennifer Orlando, a senior English major from Southbury, CT has won the 2009 Collins Literary Prize for poetry. The fiction winner is Emily Lyon, CLAS ’02 (philosophy and linguistics) who is now pursuing a degree in printmaking. Both prizes have $1,400 awards.
The first-place winner of the 46th annual Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize in CLAS is Sean Forbes, a fourth-year PhD student studying English literature with a concentration in creative writing. The second-place winner is Lori Carriere, a first-year master’s degree student of English literature. Winning third place is Nicole Rubin, a freshman honors student majoring in biology and human rights, with a concentration in creative writing. The prize awards are $1,000 for first place, $500 for second, and $300 for third place. The poetry prize is sponsored by The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., and The Hartford Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens. Wallace Stevens, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, was a resident of Hartford and an executive at Hartford Accident and Indemnity.
Jennifer Paulovicks McCullagh, a doctoral student in audiology, won a highly competitive NIH-AAS research award for 2009. She presented her work at the American Auditory Society meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. She has also been chosen for the American Academy of Audiology Student Research Award.
Michelle Prairie, CLAS ’09, an economics major, is the only student from a public institution in New England named a Marshall Scholar for 2009. She will spend two years in the United Kingdom studying for two master’s degrees in developmental economics.
Christopher Weingart, a maritime studies major at the Avery Point campus, won the Milton R. Stern Award in American Studies for writing the best essay on an interdisciplinary topic concerned with American culture. Weingart has worked closely with Mary K. Berkaw Edwards, associate professor of English, who teaches in the maritime studies program.
Doctoral student Jang K. Kim in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology has won first place for a student oral presentation for his presentation at the World Aquaculture 2008 meeting in Busan, Korea.
Chemistry graduate student Jason Schmink has won the 2008-2009 Outstanding Teacher Assistant Award.
David Robinson, a PhD candidate in anthropology, was appointed as the first Maritime Heritage member of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council. Stellwagen on Massachusetts Bay is one of 14 sites in the National Marine Sanctuary system. Robinson works with undergaduate students at the Avery Point campus, documenting historic shipwrecks and teaching underwater archaeology.
Dawn Carone, a PhD candidate who works with adviser Rachel O’Neill, associate professor of molecular and cell biology, won a fellowship from the National Science Foundation’s East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes to conduct research in Australia. Carone will work in the laboratory of Dr. Marilyn Renfree at the University of Melbourne. She will examine marsupial species hybrids to determine the role that small RNAs play in centromere instability.
Alumni Association Awards
CLAS faculty and alumni were well represented in the 2008 UConn Alumni Association awards.
Nancy Naples, professor of sociology, and Wolodymyr Madych, professor of mathematics, won the 2008 Alumni Association awards for faculty excellence in research. David A. Kenny, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Psychology, is in his third year as the Distinguished Alumni Professor. Alumni from CLAS who won 2008 awards: Annette Lombardi, CLAS ’76, the Service Award; Jessica Stone Beauchemin, CLAS ’98, Graduate of the Last Decade award; and Anita McBride, CLAS ’81, President’s Award of Distinction.
Staff Awards
Sally Neal, adviser in the CLAS Academic Services Center, has been chosen by students as outstanding adviser of the year.
Jennifer Murphy, undergraduate coordinator for the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, was chosen as the staff recipient of the 2008 Outstanding Undergraduate Student Advisement and Advocacy Award from the Office of the Provost.