April 28, 2006
Teaching, service and research honored with LAS awards
Iowa State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) has honored
24 faculty and staff with awards for their accomplishments.
The recipients will be formally recognized in the fall during the LAS Faculty/Staff
Convocation on Wednesday, Sept. 6.
The recipients and their awards include:
Excellence in Research/Artistic Creativity - recognizes faculty
members who have a national or international reputation for contributions in
research and/or artistic creativity, and who has influenced the activities of
students.
- Eve Wurtele, professor of genetics, development and cell biology. Wurtele
is the creator of MetNet, a software program capable of taking complex data
and combine visualization with statistical analyses and modeling. Internationally
known for her work in the elucidation of the metabolic and regulatory networks
in plants.
Early Achievement in Research/Artistic Creativity - recognizes
a faculty member who has demonstrated outstanding research activities usually
early in his or her professional career.
- Heike Hofmann, assistant professor of statistics. Hofmann conducts research
that bridges traditional statistical modeling with new exploratory interactive
statistical graphics. She has developed theoretical foundations for graphics
and provided methods for exploring patterns of missing values.
- Susan Stewart, assistant professor of sociology. A family sociologist and
demographer, Stewart focuses on the lives and well being of American children
and adults residing in non-traditional family structures. Her findings on
family diversity, parent-child relationships, fertility and parental involvement
have important implications for child and family well-being and the meaning
of family in contemporary American society.
- Peter Vranas, assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies.
Vranas' research in philosophy spans several subdisciplines including ethics,
epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of physics, philosophy of science, and
philosophical logic. He has been recognized with two research awards in international
competitions and a research fellowship from the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
- Meifen Wei, assistant professor of psychology. In her short time at Iowa
State, Wei has quickly developed into a leading authority in adult attachment
research and a significant leader in this area in counseling psychology. She
has published papers in the premiere journal for counseling psychology.
Mid-Career Award in Excellence in Research/Artistic Creativity
- recognizes faculty members who have a national or international reputation
for contributions in research and/or artistic creativity, and who has influenced
the research activities of students.
- John Lajoie, associate professor of physics and astronomy. Lajoie has made
exceptional contributions to the PHENIX Experiment at the Relativistic Heavy
Ion Collider. This experiment uses nuclear collisions to produce a new form
of high energy density matter believed to resemble that existing at the moment
of the creation of the universe in the Big Bang. Lajoie built the trigger
that allows PHENIX to take data and he played a key role in producing the
results indicating that an unusual form of matter had been produced.
- Gordon Miller, professor of chemistry. Miller is a highly recognized and
respected expert in solid-state chemistry. His research features simultaneous
insightful attacks on and solutions of major problems by both experimental
and theoretical state-of-the-science means.
Outstanding Teaching - recognizes faculty members for outstanding
teaching performance over an extended period of time in undergraduate education.
- Eric Cooper, associate professor of psychology. Cooper's student evaluations
are the highest in the Department of Psychology and have remained this high
since he joined the department's faculty in 1994. Relaying on “old-fashioned”
preparation, Cooper spends hours upon hours preparing his lectures. And, after
selecting a topic to discuss, he pours over the literature searching for the
most interesting examples to make his point.
- Stephen Vardeman, University Professor of statistics. Vardeman has successfully
taught statistics courses from the 100 level through the 600 level, including
three courses he developed. He is the author of four textbooks for statistics
and engineering.
Early Teaching - recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated
outstanding teaching performance unusually early in their professional careers.
- Maria Axenovich, assistant professor of mathematics. In her four years
at Iowa State, Axenovich has become one of the most successful teachers in
the Department of Mathematics. In addition to her undergraduate teaching,
she has developed a graduate curriculum in the area of graph theory with applications
to many fields including computer science and electrical engineering.
- Dan Krier, assistant professor of sociology. Krier has a unique way of
tapping into and challenging students' fundamental understandings of the social
world by using an innovative and fast-paced multi-media approach. He takes
advantage of current teaching technology to enhance student learning.
Graduate Teaching - recognizes the efforts of major professors
who not only serve as effective mentors and who enrich the student-professor
relationship by support and attention to detail, but also excel in graduate
classroom instruction.
- Janice Buss, professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology.
Buss displays a strong and visible commitment to training graduate students
in research that brings students to her for scientific guidance, often continuing
long after the students have left Iowa State. Her enthusiasm for research,
and her patience with its frustrations, have made the weekly meetings of her
laboratory members a magnet for students beyond her own including students
from veterinary medicine, chemistry, animal science and microbiology.
- Marshall Luban, professor of physics and astronomy. Luban has shown exceptional
talent, diligence, care and effectiveness in teaching, advising and mentoring
graduate students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, receiving the
department's graduate teaching award presented by the graduate students, six
times. He has been the research adviser or co-advisor of 18 graduate students
who have received advanced degrees from Iowa State.
Excellence in Undergraduate Introductory Teaching - recognizes
outstanding performance in teaching undergraduate introductory (entry-level)
classes.
- Joseph Burnett, senior lecturer in chemistry. From his start at Iowa State
as a laboratory supervisor, Burnett has shown his dedication to undergraduate
teaching. He revamped existing experiments, eliminated those that no longer
served the students, and introduced new experiments continuously. He rewrote
lab manuals and has taken an active role in training teaching assistants for
the Department of Chemistry.
- Jane Pedrick Dawson, senior lecturer in geological and atmospheric sciences.
Dawson's effectiveness as a classroom instructor is best exemplified by her
outstanding course evaluations in introductory geology where most of the students
are non-scientists. Her evaluations from these students are well above the
departmental average for introductory courses probably due to the fact that
she continually finds new ways to excite and inspire students about geology.
- Heather Thompson, senior lecturer in mathematics. Thompson has devoted
many hours to her teaching in the Department of Mathematics and continues
to work on new ways to excite and inspire students in her classes. She serves
as the course supervisor for the department's courses for prospective elementary
teachers and has worked with other Math 195 and 196 instructors to improve
those courses.
Ruth W. Swenson Award for Outstanding Advising - recognizes
outstanding performance as an undergraduate academic adviser over an extended
period of time.
- Connie Ringlee, lecturer in English. Ringlee is the academic adviser for
both the communication studies and speech communication programs in the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Merit Excellence Award - recognizes and honors merit employees
who have achieved excellence in their respective fields.
- Sheryl Kamps - clerk typist, Department of English. Kamps plays a major
role in the Department of English's communication and publicity efforts. She
works closely with faculty members on promoting appearances by guest speakers,
organizing department award events and other activities. She also manages
the department's media inventory and helps maintain the department's web site.
- Jeanette La Grange - clerk typist, Department of Statistics. La Grange's
many and varied duties include the construction of schedules for visitors,
both faculty and prospective students, to the Department of Statistics, making
travel arrangements and overseeing the logistical elements of the department.
- Sue Sprong - secretary, Environmental Studies Program. For years Sprong
has offered administrative support for both the environmental programs at
Iowa State and the Iowa Lakeside Lab. She has managed the paperwork associated
with student and faculty records for these programs.
P&S Excellence Award - recognizes and honor P&S employees
who have achieved excellence in their respective fields.
- Linda Westgate - teaching lab coordinator, Department of Genetics, Development
and Cell Biology. As coordinator for 30 to 40 lab sections in two introductory
biology laboratory courses, Westgate provides hands-on training and experience
for between 800 and 1000 students per week each semester. In addition she
mentors 15 to 20 graduate teaching assistants who translate the prepared laboratory
materials to Iowa State biology students.
LAS Institutional Service Award - recognizes a member of the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty or staff for a history of exemplary
institutional service that has benefited the department, College and/or the
university.
- Veronica Dark - associate professor of psychology. Dark has been active
on numerous LAS and Iowa State committees including Faculty Senate, LAS Representative
Assembly, the Committee for Women in Science and Engineering and Iowa State's
NCAA self-study.
- Duane Enger - professor of genetics, development and cell biology. Enger
served as chair of the Department of Zoology and Genetics for 22 years and
provided exemplary leadership and service to his department, interdepartmental
programs, LAS and Iowa State during that time.
- Rob Wallace - associate professor of ecology, evolution and organismal
biology. Wallace is an energetic and tireless contributor to the greater good
of the Iowa State community. He recently oversaw and directly the formation
of the newly revised undergraduate biology major. In addition he has been
active in providing service to LAS and Iowa State, serving on such groups
as the Faculty Senate, the LAS Representative Assembly (chair) and the LAS
Curriculum Committee.
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