Honors & Other Things
The 2005 Emeriti Faculty
At the April ceremony honoring professors who were recently accorded emeritus status, President Amy Gutmann and Interim Provost Peter Conn acknowledged the achievements of the following faculty members:
Jane Bradley Alavi, professor of radiology, School of Medicine (’73)
Sandra Theis Barnes, professor of anthropology, SAS (’73)
William R. Brennen, associate professor of chemistry, SAS (’66)
Margaret M. Cotroneo, associate professor of psych-mental health nursing, School of Nursing (’83)
Robert J. Eckroade, associate professor, laboratory of avian medicine & pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine (’76)
Keith R. Devries, professor of classical studies, SAS (’69)
Robert A. Greenstein, associate professor of psychiatry, School of Medicine (’76)
Paul J. Honig, professor of pediatrics and dermatology, School of Medicine (’75)
Aron J. Katsenelinboigen, professor of operations and information management, Wharton (’78)
Phoebe Leboy, professor of biochemistry, School of Dental Medicine (’66)
Gordon Levenson, associate professor of anatomy and cell biology, School of Dental Medicine (’68)
David S. Mcdevitt, professor of anatomy, School of Veterinary Medicine (’68)
Joan Mollman, assistant professor of neurology, School of Medicine (’78)
Adrian Morrison, professor of laboratory for study of the brain in sleep, School of Veterinary Medicine (’66)
Patrick Pasquariello, professor of pediatrics, School of Medicine (’70)
Heinz Schleyer, assistant professor of surgery, School of Medicine (’70)
Alfred J. Rieber, professor of history, SAS (’66)
Joel Rosenbloom, associate professor of anatomy and cell biology, School of Dental Medicine (’67)
Edward R. Thornton, professor of chemistry, SAS (’61)
Wilfried Weber, professor of pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine (’66)
Note: The year in parentheses is the year the professors joined the faculty ranks.
PECASE: Three Penn Faculty
Three researchers from Penn have been named among 58 of the nation’s most promising young scientists and engineers by President George W. Bush with the 2004 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
Dr. Marija Drndic, an assistant professor in the department of physics and astronomy, was nominated for contributions to understanding the physics and applications of broad ranging nanoscale electronic devices and materials.
Dr. Tejvir Khurana, an assistant professor in the department of physiology, was nominated for his studies on myostatin, a muscle protein, which might offer therapeutic strategies for muscular dystrophy.
Dr.Kevin G. Volpp, an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine, was nominated for his work in using econometric methods to study the effects of social policies and health system design on the health of patients and populations. Dr. Volpp also studies the effects of financial incentives on health behaviors.
The PECASE award honors the most promising researchers in the nation within their fields. The recipients are awarded up to five years of funding to further their research in support of critical government missions.
Graduate Student Teaching Awards
The Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Ph.D. students was established in 2000. Awarded by the Office of the Provost, the prizes recognize excellence in teaching by graduate students across the University who, through their dedication to teaching, have had a profound impact on undergraduate education at Penn.
In recognition of Dr. Judith Rodin’s contributions to graduate education as Penn’s president from 1994-2004, The Council of Ivy Group Presidents funded two additional TA prizes in her honor this year.
This year there were 264 nominations for 120 TAs. The 12 awardees, shown below with President Amy Gutmann, are:
- Nona Carter: East Asian Languages and Civilizations
- D'Maris Coffman: History
- Joanna Cohen: History
- Jamie Eggers: Management
- William Ewing: Chemistry
- Liang Huang: Computer and Information Science
- Claudio Lucarelli: Economics
- Lee Malkiel: History
- Mark Navin: Philosophy
- Nicholas Pagano: Chemistry
- Jason Rheins: Philosophy
- •Michael Yatauro: Mathematics
Gold Medal: Dr. Stunkard
Dr. Albert J. Stunkard, founding director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the School of Medicine and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, was awarded the Gold Medal for Distinguished Academic Accomplishment from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he earned his medical degree in 1945. The medal, which is presented by Columbia’s Alumni Association, is their highest honor in recognizing outstanding achievement.
AcademyHealth Award Winners
The AcademyHealth Awards recognize individuals who have made significant contributions to the fields of health services research and health policy.
Dr. Linda Aiken, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, the Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing, professor of sociology, and senior fellow at LDI, is the winner of the 2005 Distinguished Investigator Award. The award recognizes investigators who have made significant and lasting contributions to the field of health services research through scholarship and teaching, advancement of science and methods, and leadership.
Dr. Katrina Armstrong, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology, senior fellow and director of research at LDI, and senior scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics has been awarded the Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award. The award recognizes scholars early in their careers as health services researchers who show exceptional promise for future contributions to the field.
Dr. Rachel Werner, assistant professor of medicine and a staff physician at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center has been awarded the Dissertation Award. She completed a Ph.D. in health economics at the Wharton School and finished her dissertation, “Testing Theories of Discrimination in Health Care: Evidence from New York’s CABG Report Card” in 2004. The award honors an outstanding scientific contribution from a doctoral thesis in health services research.
Grants: Nursing Faculty
Dr. Mary Naylor, the Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology, has been awarded a grant by the Commonwealth Fund’s Program on Health Care Quality Improvement. It is in support of the project Coordinating Care between Hospital and Home: Translating Research into Practice, Phase 2.
Dr. Julie Sochalski, associate professor in nursing, has been awarded a grant by the Commonwealth Fund’s Program on Medicare’s Future. It is in support of the project Improving Quality and Efficiency: A Coordinated Care Benefit for Medicare Enrollees with Heart Failure.
Dr. Norma Cuellar, assistant professor in nursing, has been awarded the Minority Junior Faculty Award by the Christian R. & Mary F. Lindback Foundation. The grant is in support of her project on the use of alternative medicine for the sleep disorder Restless Leg Syndrome.
Pew Fellowship: Mr. Mosley
Joshua Mosley, assistant professor of fine arts at the School of Design, has received the 2005 Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Joshua Mosley teaches digital animation. Established by the Pew Charitable Trusts in 1991, grants of $50,000 are awarded to artists working in a wide variety of performing, visual, and literary disciplines. The grants provide support to the artists so that they have the opportunity to dedicate themselves to creative pursuits exclusively.
ASLA Design Medal: Mr. Olin
Laurie Olin, practice professor of landscape architecture and founder and principal of Olin Partnership, Ltd., has been awarded the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Design Medal in honor of his exceptional accomplishments in design. The medal is awarded annually to a landscape architect.
Laurie Olin has also been honored with membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The mission of the Academy is to foster and sustain interest in literature, music, and the fine arts by identifying and encouraging individual artists. Mr. Olin is one of only three landscape architects to be honored with membership in the Academy since its founding in 1898.
Rome Prize: Ms. Berrizbeitia
Anita de La Rosa Berrizbeitia, associate professor of landscape architecture, is the 2005-06 winner of the Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture. Her research will be on the ecology of formal systems in the Italian landscape and garden. Rome Prize fellowships are designed for artists and for scholars in the early or middle stages of their careers. The Academy offers the opportunity to examine the source of Western humanistic heritage, and to engage in a dialogue with Rome’s culture.
$5 Million Grant to GRASP Lab
Engineers at Penn have received a $5 million grant from the Department of Defense to develop large-scale “swarms” of robots that could work together to thoroughly search large areas from the ground and sky.
Penn’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception Laboratory (GRASP) will receive the five-year grant Defense Department’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program. The Swarms project is based upon the success of the GRASP Lab’s smaller-scale Multiple Autonomous Robotics (MARS) project, which managed the movement and behavior of about a dozen robots.
“Our objective here is to develop the software framework and tools for a new generation of autonomous robots, ultimately to the point where an operator can supervise an immense swarm of small robots through unfamiliar terrain,” said Vijay Kumar, director of the GRASP Lab at SEAS and principal investigator of the Swarms Project.
Two Awards for WXPN
Roger LaMay, WXPN general manager and Vinnie Curren, former WXPN general manager, were awarded Public Radio International’s (PRI) Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. They were chosen for “all that they have done with taking a radio station and moving it into the café and everything they’ve done with the station,” said Dan Jensen, PRI spokesman.
WXPN and World Cafe Live were honored by the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia for “the unusual collaboration between a for-profit producer of live entertainment and a nonprofit public radio station to establish the World Cafe Live.
NPR: National Distribution for WXPN
NPR has acquired exclusive national distribution rights to WXPN Philadelphia’s World Cafe and Conversations from the World Cafe, two contemporary music shows.
HERS: Dr. Hartocollis
Penn’s 2005 candidate for the HERS Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration is Dr. Lina Hartocollis, the associate dean for administrative and student affairs as well as the director of continuing education at the School of Social Policy and Practice (formerly the School of Social Work).
The national institute, co-founded at Penn and held at Bryn Mawr College, is in its 30th year as a national training ground for women faculty and staff to prepare for advancement in higher education administration.
Janet Lee Stevens Award
Uri Horesch, a graduate student in linguistics, has received the Janet Lee Stevens Award, given annually to a graduate student in Arabic and Islamic Studies who, in addition to showing exceptional merit in his or her academic performance, fulfills the spirit of the Award by working to improve relations with and understanding of the Arab world (Almanac March 16, 2004).
One of the Best Places to Work in IT
Computerworld has selected Penn as No. 8 of the top workplaces for information technology professionals in America and as the top workplace for IT professionals in the Mid-Atlantic States. This honor is part of the weekly publication’s 12th annual “Best Places to Work” in IT survey, published in the June 27 issue.
The “Best Places to Work in IT” feature ranks the top 100 work environments for technology professionals, based on a questionnaire regarding benefits, diversity, career development, training and retention.
Almanac, Vol. 52, No. 1, July 12, 2005
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