Awards, Honors, and Professorships

From UW Innovation Awards to NSF CAREER Awards to a nod from Fast Company magazine, dozens of Arts & Sciences accomplishments have been recognized over the past few months through honorary awards, publication awards, chair and professorship appointments, and other awards.

HONORARY AWARDS

Ann-Charlotte Gavel Adams, Barbro Osher Endowed Chair of Swedish Studies in the Department of Scandinavian Studies, was elected as a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities— the oldest learned society in Sweden.

Bojan Belić, senior lecturer in Slavic languages and literatures, received the 2014 AATSEEL Award for Excellence in Post-Secondary Teaching from the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.  This award honors excellence in the teaching of Slavic and East European languages at the post-secondary level; recognizes promotion of Slavic languages, literatures, and culture at the undergraduate or graduate level; and rewards those who best support and inspire their students.

Michael Biggins, affiliate professor of Slavic languages and literatures and Slavic librarian, will receive the 2015 Janko Lavrin Prize from the Society of Slovene Literary Translators “for lifetime distinguished contributions to furthering Slovene literature abroad.”  Biggins is the translator of more than 15 major, book-length works of 20th- and 21st-century Slovene literature. The award will be presented in June in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

AJ Boydston, assistant professor of chemistry, has received an NSF CAREER Award, which supports junior faculty who “exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.”

Matthew Bush, assistant professor of chemistry, received the 2014 Eli Lilly Young Investigator Award in Analytical Chemistry, given by the Analytical Chemistry Academic Contacts Committee at Eli Lilly and Company in recognition of his outstanding research, publication record, and impact in the field of analytical chemistry.

Brandi Cossairt, assistant professor of chemistry, has received two honors: a Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, recognizing "early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars;" and a 2015 Award for Early Career Achievement from the Seattle chapter of the Association for Women in Science, which recognizes “a woman who has led her own research lab or program for less than six years… [and] shows exceptional potential for leadership and innovation in her field.”

Emily Fox, assistant professor of statistics and Amazon Professor of Machine Learning, was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, recognizing “early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars."

Daniel Gamelin, Harry and Catherine Jaynne Boand Endowed Professor of Chemistry, received the 2015 Inorganic Chemistry Lectureship Award from the American Chemical Society for “for his broad, unique, and outstanding sustained contribution to the development of inorganic nanoscience.”

Alexes Harris, associate professor of sociology, was awarded the 2015 Women of Courage, Daring to Lead Award this year from the UW Women’s Center. The award honors “courageous women and the many ways they strive to make a difference.”

Ellen Kaisse, Howard and Frances Nostrand Endowed Professor in the Department of Linguistics, has been named a Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America.

Patricia Kuhl, Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning, professor of speech and hearing sciences, co-director of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, and director of the NSF Science of Learning (LIFE) Center, will receive the George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience from the Cognitive Neuroscience Society.  The Prize is awarded to a nominee whose career is characterized by distinguished and sustained scholarship and research at the cutting-edge of their discipline. 

Robert Miller, senior lecturer, and Carol Stoel-Gammon, professor, both in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, received the Honors of the Association award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the highest honor the association bestows on its members for distinguished contributions to the discipline of communication sciences and disorders.

Thomas Rothvoss, assistant professor of mathematics and computer science and engineering, was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, recognizing “early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars."

Connie So, senior lecturer in the Department of American Ethnic Studies, was selected for the International Examiner 2015 Community Voice Award for Community Service for her “sustained leadership and excellence in educating our youth, mentoring them to be their full Asian Pacific American selves, and connecting them to community organizations.”

Stefan Stoll, assistant professor of chemistry, has received two major awards for his experimental biophysical research: an NSF CAREER Award, which supports junior faculty who “exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations;” and a 2015 Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, which “champions the very best early career teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy by providing significant discretionary awards for research.”

Keiko Torii, Endowed Distinguished Professor of Biology, garnered two recent honors: the 2014 Inoue Prize for Science, which is awarded by the Inoue Foundation for mid-career scientists who have made substantial breakthroughs in basic research in the natural sciences; and the 2015 Fellow of ASPB Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists.

Mavis Tsai, research scientist in the Department of Psychology and director of the Functional Analytic Psychotherapy Specialty Clinic within the Psychological Services & Training Center, has received the Washington State Psychological Association's 2014 Distinguished Psychologist Award in recognition of significant contributions to the field of psychology.

Doug Wadden, Marsha and Jay Glazer Endowed University Professor in the School of Art+Art History+Design, has been selected as 2014 Fellow by AIGA, the professional association of design. The honor recognizes designers who have made a significant contribution to raising the standards of excellence in practice and conduct within their local or regional design community as well as in their local AIGA chapter.

PUBLICATION AWARDS

Jennifer Bean, associate professor of comparative literature and director of the Cinema and Media Studies programs, will receive the Society for Cinema and Media Studies annual award for the year's 'best edited collection,' for Silent Cinema and the Politics of Space, a book collection that she co-edited.

Megan Francis, assistant professor of political science, is the winner of the annual W.E.B. Du Bois Outstanding Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists for Civil Rights and the Making of the American State.

Cheryl Kaiser, associate professor of psychology, received the 2014 Gordon Allport Prize from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues for the best paper of the year addressing intergroup relations. The award also recognizes co-authors former UW honors student Ines Jurcevic, now a doctoral student in social psychology at UCLA, and UW graduate student Laura Brady.

Robert Pekkanen, professor of international studies, has been awarded the 2014 ISS/Oxford Prize for Modern Japanese Studies for co-authoring the article "The Logic of Ministerial Selection: Electoral System and Cabinet Appointments in Japan,"  which appeared in Social Science Japan Journal in January 2014.

Cabieri Robinson, associate professor of South Asian studies, has been awarded two prizes for her book, Body of Victim, Body of Warrior, which examines the lives of Kashmiri refugees within the complex history of the region and international definitions of refugees and human rights. The South Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies awarded her the Bernard Cohn Prize for best first book in South Asian Studies; the American Institute of Pakistan Studies awarded its 2013-2014 book prize. 

CHAIR AND PROFESSORSHIP APPOINTMENTS

Purnima Dhavan, associate professor of history, has been appointed Howard and Frances Keller Endowed Professor in History for a three-year term.

Patricia Ebrey, professor of history, has been appointed Williams Family Endowed Professorship of History for a three-year term.

David Ginger, professor of chemistry, has been appointed Alvin L. and Verla R. Kwiram Endowed Professorship in Chemistry for a five-year term.

Jennifer Salk, professor and chair of the Dance Program, has been appointed Floyd and Delores Jones Endowed Chair in the Arts for a three-year term.

Laurie Sears, professor of history, has been appointed Walker Family Endowed Professor of History for a three-year term.

Jamie Walker, professor and director of the School of Art+Art History+Design, has been appointed Wyckoff Milliman Endowed Chair in Art for a five-year term.

OTHER AWARDS

Daniel Bessner, assistant professor of international studies, has received a 2015-2016 academic year fellowship at Dartmouth College Dickey Center for International Understanding.  

Estella Leopold, professor emeritus of biology, and The Leopold Pollen and Seed Laboratory won the 2014 - 2015 UW College of Arts & Sciences Green Laboratory Competition, ​through which labs test their sustainability and strive to be the greenest research facilities on campus. 

Sarah Roseberry Lytle, director of outreach and education at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, has been awarded a fellowship from the national nonprofit Zero to Three. The award will support her efforts to communicate the latest science of early learning to teachers, parents and others through online multimedia modules.

Gina Neff, associate professor of communication, received a 2015 Innovation Education Award from the UW as part of a collaborative team working to foster new levels of student engagement and understanding, especially through active learning. The team is creating a cross-disciplinary, Web-based program that will provide mentoring and a support network to help students across departments gain entrepreneurial-thinking skills and increase their problem-solving skills.

Jay Parrish, assistant professor of biology, received a 2015 Innovation Research Award from the UW, for research on ion channel mutations, many of which are associated with major psychiatric disorders including autism, bipolar disorder, and epilepsy. Innovation Research Awards encourage early and mid-career scientists to pursue projects that may not yet qualify for outside funding, but show future promise and will engage students in innovative, creative work.

Priti Ramamurthy, professor and chair of the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies and adjunct professor of American Ethnic Studies, won an American Council of Learned Societies Collaborative Research Fellowship for a project, The Country and the City: For a Poetics of Informal Economies in Contemporary India .

Quintard Taylor, professor of history and Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Chair of American History, as well as the rest of the team responsible for BlackPast.org, will receive the National Education Association’s 2015 Carter G. Woodson Memorial Award, which is “presented to an individual/group/institution whose activities in Black affairs significantly impact education and the achievement of equal opportunity.”  

James Tweedie, associate professor of comparative literature, will receive a 2015 Andrew W. Mellon New Directions Fellowship. New Directions Fellowships assist faculty members in the humanities acquire advanced training outside their own areas of special interest to pursue a specific research agenda. The fellowship will support his efforts to take courses in industrial and urban design, animation, and art history. 

John Wilkerson, professor of political science, and graduate student Nicholas Stramp won two recognitions for their online legislative explorer, LegEx.  Their website, www.legex.org, which tracks all Congressional legislation in the last 40 years, was named an award of excellence winner in interactive design by Communication Arts, an international trade journal of visual communications.  It was also named among the 18 best infographics of 2014 by the Fast Company magazine, which featured the site among “stellar examples of the power of data visualization.”