May 14, 2007
LAS faculty honored with Iowa State awards
Seven faculty and staff members in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
have been recognized by Iowa State University for their excellence in the classroom,
research and other service areas.
The recipients will be recognized in the fall during the LAS Faculty/Staff Convocation
on Wednesday, Sept. 5, and formally recognized during the University's Fall
Convocation, also scheduled for September.
The recipients and their awards include:
ISU Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research - recognizes
faculty members for outstanding achievement in research, scholarship, or creative
activity.
- Tsing-Chang (Mike) Chen, professor of geological and atmospheric
sciences. A world leader in several major research areas within atmospheric
science, Chen focuses on the physics of weather and climate. His research
has been characterized by astonishing breadth and fundamental advances. These
advances span topics ranging from short-term weather events to multi-decadal
climate variability and from local severe weather to global-scale circulation.
ISU Award for Mid-Career Achievement in Research - recognizes
a faculty member who has demonstrated outstanding accomplishments in research
at the mid-career stage.
- Mei Hong, professor of chemistry. A well funded and creative
researcher in the field of solid-state NMR, Hong has received numerous honors
including the 2004 Award in Pure Chemistry from the American Chemical Society.
She is also the recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) POWRE Award,
Beckman Young Investigator Award, Research Innovation Award from the Research
Corporation and the NSF CAREER Award. Her research program in the last two
years has broadened beyond solid-state NRM spectroscopy and is now characterized
by such high-impact work as the structure determination of membrane protein
assemblies.
Louis Thompson Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award
- recognizes faculty members for outstanding teaching performance over an extended
period of time.
- Derrick Rollins, associate professor of statistics and
chemical and biological engineering. An outstanding classroom instructor,
Rollins teaches courses in engineering statistics as well advanced statistical
modeling for chemical engineering.
Margaret Ellen White Graduate Faculty Award - recognizes the
effectiveness of major professors who serve as mentors; who enrich the student-professor
relationship by support and attention to detail which enables students to finish
their work in a timely and scholarly manner.
- Robert Houk, professor of chemistry. Houk's active research
group looks at the fundamental study and applications of new ionization techniques
for mass spectrometry (MS) in order to devise new methodology for important
analytical problems based on sensitivity and selectivity of MS when combined
with an appropriate ionization source.
International Service Award - recognizes faculty for outstanding
international service in terms of teaching, research, or administration, within
the United States or abroad.
- Margaret Mook, associate professor of world languages and
cultures. Mook is an internationally recognized specialist in Cretan Late
Bronze Age through Archaic pottery and domestic architecture. Throughout her
career she has compiled an impressive portfolio of scholarship, including
refereed publications, invited presentations, and collaborative external grant
support in these areas, all of which focus on the archaeological material
she has collected from two important sites in Greece - the Kastro and Azoria.
Regents Award for Faculty Excellence - recognizes an outstanding
university citizen who has rendered significant service to Iowa State University
and/or to the State of Iowa.
- Vasant Honavar, professor of computer science. Honavar
has played a critical role in the development and flourishing of computational
biology at Iowa State. He was one of the most critical people who initiated
the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Graduate Training Program. He
has also engaged with several other faculty members in developing the NIH-NSF
Summer Institute in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, which was recently
reviewed for its second grant period.
P&S Outstanding New Professional Award - recognizes and
honor P&S employees who have achieved excellence in their respective fields.
- Julio Rodriguez, instructional support specialist, Department
of World Languages and Cultures. In a very shot time frame, Rodriguez has
produced an impressive transformation in the culture of instructional technology
among faculty, staff and students in his department. His visionary approach
has helped the department more effectively its IT resources.
