April 27, 2007
Teaching, service and research honored with LAS awards
Iowa State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) has honored
25 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. 5.
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.
- Douglas Bonett, professor and chair of the Department of
Psychology, and professor of statistics. Bonett's publications have been cited
more than 4,000 times, making him one of the most frequently cited quantitative
psychologists in the world. His work on interval estimation and sample size
determination gives researchers the tools to design better studies and extract
more meaningful information from their data.
- Jack Lutz, professor of computer science. A world leader
in the study of computational difficulty of solving problems on computers,
Lutz has founded and led a research area that has greatly helped computer
scientists understand the nature of efficient computation and randomness.
- Yeon-Kyun Shin, professor of biochemistry, biophysics and
molecular biology. Shin's research has received critical acclaim both nationally
and internationally. Since joining Iowa State in 2000, he has established
a research program of the highest quality that is currently supported by two
National Institute of Health grants. His research focus includes exploring
the structure of the neuronal SNARE complex.
Early Achievement in Research/Artistic Creativity - recognizes
a faculty member who has demonstrated outstanding research activities usually
early in his or her professional career.
- Daniela Dimitrova, assistant professor in the Greenlee
School of Journalism and Communication. A leading authority on the diffusion
of the Internet in Eastern Europe, Dimitrova has had 24 journal articles and
book chapters published in just four years. Other examples of her research
in patterns of international coverage of the war in Iraq and the problems
of disappearing reference citations in an Internet age.
- Karin Dorman, assistant professor of statistics & genetics,
development and cell biology. Dorman is an expert in cell biology who has
published 18 refereed papers in 14 different journals, illustrating the breadth
of her research program. She is the principal investigator (PI) on an National
Institute of Health (NIH) grant and the co-PI on a NIH/National Science Foundation
education grant, each worth approximately $1 million.
- Olga Mesropova, assistant professor of world languages
and cultures. Mesropova has published a substantial body of innovative scholarship
that pushes the limits of her discipline - contemporary Russian cultural discourse.
She focuses on post-Soviet popular culture, film, television, gender and performance.
She is the author of KINOTALK: Russian Cinema and Conversation, a
textbook for advanced study in Russian, and is the co-editor of Uncensored?
Reinventing Humor and Satire in Post-Soviet Russia.
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.
- Dan Nettleton, associate professor of statistics and the
Laurence H. Baker Endowed Chair in Biological Statistics. A national leader
in statistical genomics, Nettleton has developed statistical methodologies
for gene expression research used by plant and animal science researchers.
He strives to understand the relevant scientific problems and then seeks to
develop appropriate statistical methods before using those methods to solve
problems.
- Joerg Schmalian, associate professor of physics and astronomy.
Schmalian's research area is theoretical condensed matter physics. He and
his collaborators have made fundamental advances in understanding the behaviors
of a wide variety of complex systems, ranging from high-temperature copper
oxide superconductors to glassy metals to micro-emulsions.
Outstanding Teaching - recognizes faculty members for outstanding
teaching performance over an extended period of time in undergraduate education.
- Gary Leavens, professor of computer science. Leavens creates
a friendly classroom environment that facilitates student learning and interaction
through a variety of methods. Leavens also works to disseminate his effective
teaching methods to others, working closely with teaching assistants and graduate
students while serving as a mentor to help them hone their teaching skills.
- Fred Lorenz, University Professor of statistics and sociology.
Since 1980, Lorenz has provided outstanding instruction in difficult courses
in two departments and has provided superlative mentoring and consulting for
students, staff and colleagues. His professional dedication results in spectacular
course evaluations and a sterling reputation for making demanding course material
understandable to all students.
- Debra Marquart, associate professor of English. The recipient
of many national honors, Marquart uses her experience as a poet and creative
writer to help her students understand their own struggles with language.
Her students speak of her as an exceptional teacher and beloved mentor, whom
many expressly emulate when they too become teachers of writing.
- David Wilson, professor of history. For over three decades,
Wilson has led both undergraduate and graduate teaching in the Department
of History. He helps science and liberal arts majors alike appreciate the
essential historical context behind scientific developments including leading
classes in re-enacting the trial of Galileo.
Early Teaching - recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated
outstanding teaching performance unusually early in their professional careers.
- John Monroe, assistant professor of history. Deeply committed
to his teaching, Monroe has developed a lecture technique that brings historical
material alive for his students, whether they are history majors or non-majors
and in small classes or large.
- Nathaniel Wade, assistant professor of psychology. Wade
enters a classroom with just the right expectations for students - challenging
but reasonable. He excites his students about a subject through role play
and content-relevant video. He has developed new course on the psychology
of religion in which he provides a survey of theory and research in this area
that emphasizes discussion and critical thinking skills.
Excellence in Undergraduate Introductory Teaching - recognizes
outstanding performance in teaching undergraduate introductory (entry-level)
classes.
- Dirk Deam, senior lecturer in political science. Despite
having an extraordinary high teaching load every semester, Deam invariably
has the best student evaluations in the Department of Political Science. He
teaches courses in three distinct subfields - American politics, public law
and political theory. His classes are writing intensive, often despite large
class sizes and he has the ability to engage students in active learning.
He pushes students to think clearly and precisely and to learn how to develop
good arguments in support of the positions they take.
- James Lathrop, lecturer in computer science. In addition
to being generally regarded as the best undergraduate instructor in the Department
of Computer Science, Lathrop has also contributed greatly to the department's
undergraduate curriculum development. In the classroom he instills a sense
of inquisitiveness among students and inspires them to seek and learn beyond
what is required for a course.
- Aili Mu, assistant professor of world languages and cultures.
At Iowa State, Mu has demonstrated creativity in developing teaching strategies
specific to introductory Chinese-language courses based on actual student
learning patterns in the classroom. In elementary Chinese she has developed
an innovative introductory curriculum for heritage learners of Chinese whose
learning needs are not addressed in the traditional elementary classroom.
- Elizabeth Schabel, senior lecturer in English. Schabel
has taught business writing, has served as supervisor of student teachers
and has worked extensively with programs for talented and gifted children.
Her introductory teaching includes 15 years of teaching first year composition
to Honors Program students. Those classes are issue oriented - studying the
Holocaust or the plight of the working poor - but which are approached through
literary texts and students are encouraged to find their own approaches.
Departmental Leadership Award - recognizes a department chair
that has demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities in advancing the faculty,
staff, students, and programs in his/her department.
- Paul Lasley, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology.
Lasley has served as chair of the Department of Sociology since 2003 and is
the first chair to be voted a second term in the department's history. He
has instigated an external review and organized a retreat to refocus the department's
graduate program. With emeritus professors, he successfully reconnected alumni
with graduates and simultaneously made the department a force in distance
education.
Ruth W. Swenson Award for Outstanding Advising - recognizes
outstanding performance as an undergraduate academic adviser over an extended
period of time.
- James Holtz, academic advisor in the Department of Ecology,
Evolution and Organismal Biology. Holtz interacts with students in diverse
roles, including coordinating the Biology Program's Summer Orientation, teaching
biology orientation and field-oriented biology courses, and serving as co-advisor
of the Biological Sciences Club and the Skunk River Navy.
Merit Excellence Award - recognizes and honors merit employees
who have achieved excellence in their respective fields.
- Linda Haglund, secretary in the Department of Anthropology.
Haglund has been a key figure in maintaining continuity for students and faculty
for the past 21 years in the Department of Anthropology. Among her duties
are course scheduling, graduate applications, departmental budget, teaching
assistantships and catalog revisions.
- Deb Thornburg, secretary in the Department of Economics.
A dedicated and productive employee in the Department of Economics for 20
years, Thornburg is responsible for a wide range of activities related to
"smooth operation of the main office." With recent budget cuts,
Thornburg has taken on duties previously handled by two through a number of
innovative strategies.
P&S Excellence Award - recognizes and honor P&S employees
who have achieved excellence in their respective fields.
- Brent Moore, systems support specialist in the Department
of Economics. Moore is responsible for all computers, peripherals and software
purchases, maintenance, deployment, inventory and education in the Department
of Economics. He has been innovative in working to standardize the use of
many software packages while maintaining sufficient flexibility for individual
research projects.
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.
- John Mayfield, professor of genetics, development and cell
biology. Mayfield has provided outstanding leadership and vigorous efforts
to improve graduate training programs throughout Iowa State during his almost
10-year tenure as associate dean of the Graduate College. He has also worked
to provide an infrastructure for key campus initiatives, especially in biotechnology
and bioinformatics.
- Norm Scott, professor of psychology. In his 34 years at
Iowa State as a faculty member in the Department of Psychology, Scott has
continuously served on many important committees and taken on many important
service roles. He has been director or co-director of the counseling program
in the department for 21 years. Among the many committees he has served on
include his recent inclusion on the Institutional Review Board where he helps
make important decisions that affect the research programs of faculty and
students across the University.
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