PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 24, No. 20, May 5, 2005

achievements A report on honors, awards, appointments and other outstanding achievements of faculty and staff members.

ACES | administration | broadcasting | business | campus recreation | education | engineering | FAA | LAS | GSLIS | public safety | student affairs | university library |

agricultural, consumer and environmental sciences
Child Care Resource Service received Quality Assurance validation from the National Association for Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. To earn this accreditation, they met a set of stringent criteria for best practices. The service is the second of only 16 resources and referral agencies throughout the state to achieve this accreditation.

Faculty and staff members of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences were honored at the college’s annual awards banquet April 27.

Donald P. Briskin, professor of natural resources and environmental sciences; Darrel L. Good, professor of agricultural and consumer economics; and Marvin R. Paulsen, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, received the Paul A. Funk Recognition Award. The awards are the college’s top honor.

Schuyler S. Korban, professor of molecular genetics, won the Spitze Land-Grant Professorial Career Excellence Award.

Walter L. Hurley, professor of animal sciences, received the Senior Faculty Award for excellence in teaching. Alan C. Hansen, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, was presented the college’s Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Richard A. Weinzierl, professor of crop sciences and of natural resources and environmental sciences, received the Senior Faculty Award for Excellence in Extension. Mohammad Babadoost, professor of crop sciences, received the College Faculty Award for Excellence in Extension.

Roderick I. Mackie, professor of animal sciences, received the Senior Faculty Award for Excellence in Research. Qin Zhang, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, won the College Faculty Award for Excellence in Research.

Winning the college’s Team Award for Excellence was the Pesticide Safety Education Program. Team members: Patricia A. Bingaman, Jean L. Miles, Philip L. Nixon and Michelle L. Wiesbrook, all of natural resources and environmental sciences; Scott M. Bretthauer, agricultural and biological engineering, and Bruce E. Paulsrud, crop sciences.

Four academic professionals were honored for excellence. Douglas G. Peterson, communication specialist in the News and Public Affairs section of Information Technology and Communications Services, was honored for innovation and creativity. Philip L. Nixon, extension entomologist in the department of natural resources and environmental sciences, was honored for excellence in teaching and outreach, and Robin A. Orr, extension specialist, for sustained excellence in management. Ralph W. Esgar, an agronomist in the department of crop sciences, was honored for sustained excellence in research.

Darrel J. Kesler, professor of animal sciences, won The Karl E. Gardner Outstanding Undergraduate Adviser Award.

Germán A. Bollero, professor of crop sciences, received the John Clyde and Henrietta Downey Spitler Teaching Award.

Carol L. Preston, secretary IV in natural resources and environmental sciences, and Michael E. Vose, farm foreman in Pike County for the department of crop sciences, received the Staff Award for Excellence.

Diane K. Frerichs, secretary IV in the department of food science and human nutrition and UI Extension, was honored with the Marcella M. Nance Staff Award.

administration
Charles Zukoski, vice chancellor for research at the UI, will chair the Science and Engineering Research Council. Zukoski will fly to Singapore in April to chair the council, while still retaining his position at the UI as he divides his time between Singapore and the United States. While in Singapore, Zukoski will be responsible for charting new directions and strategies for the council and its research institutes.

broadcasting
Reporters for WILL-AM (580) have won two Downstate Radio awards in the Illinois Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s 2004 Journalism Excellence Contest. Tom Rogers and Jim Meadows placed second in the Best Series/Documentary category for “Bridging the Achievement Gap.” Meg Minor won second place in the Best Editorial/ Commentary category for “Public Square,” a commentary on Nov. 5 about honoring veterans on Veterans Day. Jay Pearce, WILL-AM-FM station manager and WILL-AM program director who also is president of the association, will hand out the awards at the Illinois News Broadcasters Association convention on April 23 in Decatur.

business
Kent B. Monroe, the John M. Jones professor of marketing in the department of business administration, received the 2005 AMA/Irwin/McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award. The annual award is the highest honor a marketing educator can receive. Recipients must be universally acknowledged as longstanding leaders in marketing education and must have made extensive contributions to marketing education and the marketing discipline in general. Monroe was nominated by a dozen faculty members in his department in a letter co-signed by the college’s dean, Avijit Ghosh.

campus recreation
Julie McMahon, assistant director of multimedia communications for the Division of Campus Recreation, received a National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association Creative Excellence Award for her design of the 2003-04 UI Campus Recreation Annual Report. The award was announced in April at the annual conference in Orlando, Fla.

The Division of Campus Recreation received a Community Service Award from the Champaign Park District on behalf of the Illinois Park and Recreation Association and the Illinois Association of Park Districts. The award was given in recognition and appreciation of outstanding contributions and unselfish devotion for the advancement of parks, recreation and leisure in the community and the state of Illinois. Campus Recreation was specifically honored for its collaboration with the Champaign Park District for the Outdoor Adventures Program.

education
Christopher Lubienski, professor of education, has been chosen as a 2005-06 Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. The fellowships are administered by the National Academy of Education, an honorary educational society, and include an award of $55,000 to assist with the fellow’s salary replacement and research expenses during the fellowship period. The fellowships are used to enhance the future of education research by developing new talent in many disciplines and fields represented by the 20 fellows selected from more than 200 applicants.

engineering
Taekjip Ha, professor of physics, has been selected as one of 43 of the nation’s most promising biomedical scientists by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The scientists are selected through a nationwide competition that began in 2004 when the institute asked universities, medical schools and institutes to nominate candidates who demonstrated exceptional promise within four to 10 years of becoming independent scientists. More than 300 individuals were nominated. The institute is dedicated to discovering and disseminating new knowledge in the basic life sciences. The scientists chosen are to become new investigators for the institute, which will invest more than $300 million in additional support for biomedical research.

In his research, Ha uses physical techniques to study the mechanism of helicases, DNA-unwinding enzymes that crawl along the DNA helix, separating the double strands as they go. Helicases are important in many genetic processes; when they malfunction, genetic diseases or cancer may follow. This highly prestigious award will provide Ha with substantial funding over the next several years.

fine and applied arts
Botond Bognar, professor of architecture, has been awarded the 2005 Cultural Appreciation Prize of the Architectural Institute of Japan for his “excellent contribution to architecture” in Japan. The prestigious honor is awarded to non-members of the institute and is rarely awarded to international architects. The institute promotes the advancement and development of science, technology and art concerning architecture and is a non-profit organization for architects, building engineers and researchers in every field of architecture. The main purpose of the institute is to cultivate its members’ abilities and to heighten architectural quality in Japan. Bognar will receive the award at a ceremony May 30.

James Warfield, professor emeritus of the School of Architecture, and UI alumnus Todd Barnet of the Potter Design Group of Madison, Wis., received the 2005 Design Heritage Award for their design of the new Quaker Meeting House in Urbana. The award was presented by the Heritage Awards Committee of the Preservation and Conservation Association for “work expended in construction of an environmentally sensitive and historically respectful building.”

liberal arts and sciences
Vernon Burton, professor of history and associate director for Humanities and Social Science at NCSA, testified before the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act on March 11 in Montgomery, Ala. Burton was asked to be on the initial panel to put the Voting Rights Act into a historical perspective during the “Discrimination in Voting: Historical Overview” meeting. The commission is holding a series of regional hearings across the country to gather testimony and evidence that will be used to create a comprehensive record on the degree of racial discrimination in voting since the last reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act in 1982. These testimonies were televised on C-SPAN. Burton also is on the advisory board for the University of California at Berkley’s Civil Rights Project, “The Decade Ahead: Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act and the Future of Democratic Participation.”

Julian Palmore, professor of mathematics and in the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and National Security, has been named North American editor of the journal Defense & Security Analysis. He assumed that position in January.
Palmore also was invited to participate in a conference in England in May. The conference, “Strengthening Transatlantic Cooperation of Missile Defenses,” includes exclusive U.S. and European defense strategists. It will address issues of missile defense, and participants include officials from governmental and nongovernmental agencies, international commissions and representatives of private industry. This is the second year Palmore has been invited to the conference.

Chad Rienstra, professor of chemistry, was selected by the Research Corp. as a Cottrell Scholar for 2005-07. Rienstra is one of 13 applicants selected from more than 130 people. The Research Corp. is dedicated to the advancement of science. The Cottrell Scholar program recognizes originality, feasibility and the prospect for significant fundamental advances to science in research. The criteria for receiving recognition also includes the prospects for contributions to education, especially at the undergraduate level, and proposed strategies to achieve educational objectives in teaching. The recognition comes with a cash award of $100,000.

Donald Wuebbles, a professor and head of atmospheric sciences, and his fellow members of the Ozone Science Tiger Team received the 2005 Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award from the Environmental Protection Agency. The award was presented May 4 at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The Tiger Team is a group of statisticians and atmospheric scientists, which since 1982, has studied the role of human impact on global tropospheric and stratospheric ozone. By combining the science of ozone chemistry and physics with sophisticated statistical techniques, the team provided a powerful new approach for studying the trend in atmospheric ozone levels.

The team’s work resulted in “a major influence on the policy development to protect stratospheric ozone,” wrote Bella A. Maranion, an EPA program analyst who nominated the team for the award.

The EPA established its Ozone Protection Awards in 1990 to recognize exceptional leadership, personal dedication and technical achievements in eliminating ozone-depleting substances.

Ninth Letter, a publication of short stories and poems produced by students and professors in the English and creative writing programs, has won numerous awards. The magazine Web site, Ninthletter.com, was named a finalist in the arts category for the South by Southwest Interactive Arts Festival competition. In addition, the printed version of Ninth Letter has won gold medals for “cover design and magazine design as a complete unit” in the 2004 Annual Design Competition sponsored by the University and College Designers Association. The Type Directors Club also named Ninth Letter one of the 250 winners of its 2005 Typography Competition, which received more than 2,500 submissions. As part of the award, Ninth Letter will be featured in the Type Directors Club’s 2005 annual book, TYPOGRAPHY 26. Finally, the most prestigious award was for Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s short story, “A Taste of Dust,” which appeared in the first issue of Ninth Letter (vol. 1 issue 1). The story was selected by Michael Chabon for inclusion in the 2005 edition of the Best American Short Stories anthology. This honor is very rare for the first issue of any magazine, according to Philip Graham, UI professor of English and fiction editor of Ninth Letter.


library and information science
John M. Unsworth, dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, is the 2005 recipient of the Richard W. Lyman Award. This $25,000 award, presented by the National Humanities Center, recognizes scholars who have advanced humanistic scholarship and teaching through the innovative use of information technology. The National Humanities Center is the nation’s only private independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. Unsworth will receive the award during a presentation ceremony on May 10 at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Unsworth was the first director of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia. During his tenure there, the institute developed groundbreaking digital projects. Currently, Unsworth is a co-principal investigator of the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program, a $2.6 million project funded by the Library of Congress to help collect and preserve digital information.

public safety
Officer Tom Geis was named Police Officer of the Year at the annual Division of Public Safety Awards ceremony May 3 at Levis Faculty Center.

Other awards:
Carol Bailey Civilian Employee Award: Gregor Vacketta, systems administrator II
Cecil Coleman Award: Greg Abbott, extra help

Director of Public Safety Recognition Award: Dick Justice, associate dean of students, Housing Division

Division Commendations: Sgt. John Brown and Officers Doug Beckmann, Tim Hetrick, Aaron Landers, Laura Phillips, Bruce Rolando and Michelle Standifer; Officers Troy Chew, Tim Hetrick, Tove Ghent and John Wright Jr.; Officer Timothy Harper; Tammy Beasley, telecommunicator

Lifesaving Awards: Officers Kenneth O’Brien and Brian Tison

Marskmanship Awards: 1st place: Officer Aaron Landers; 2nd place (tie): Officers George Sandwick and William Smoot Jr.

Merit Awards: Sgt. Aaron Fredrick, Officer Tove Ghent

Student Patrol Commendation Award: Matthew Berge

Student Patrol Officer of the Year: Dan Shofner

Several officers and staff members also were recognized with service awards.

student affairs
Jennifer L. Bloom, associate dean of student affairs and administrative director of the Medical Scholars Program for the College of Medicine, has been selected as one of two Outstanding Advising Award Winners in the Academic Advising Administrator category from the National Academic Advising Association. This category includes individuals who provide direct academic advising services, but whose primary responsibility is as an administrator or director of an academic advising program. Bloom will receive the award in Las Vegas during the annual NACADA National Conference in October.

Six student affairs staff members received the 2005 Student Affairs Outstanding Staff Award for their significant contributions to the lives of students and to the campus community. Honored with campus awards: Lisa A. Burgoon, sports nutrition health educator, McKinley Health Center; Robyn M. Deterding, associate director, Division of Campus Recreation; Joseph A. Dilts, building service foreman, University Housing; Veronica M. Kann, assistant director, La Casa Cultural Latina; Phyllis J. Kirkwood, clerk, Counseling Center; and Ross A. Wantland, coordinator, Sexual Assault Programs/Victim Advocate, Office of the Dean of Students. The 2005 Student Affairs Outstanding Staff Award Winners were honored at a reception May 3.

university library
Scott Schwartz, the UI Library’s archivist for music and fine arts, served as keynote speaker for the 27th Annual Convention of the Association of Concert Bands. The event was held in Quincy, Ill., April 13-17. It focused on the preservation of America’s band tradition, which Schwartz addressed in his speech, “Why So Many Piccolos, Mr. Sousa? Saving America’s Music Heritage.”

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