UNL honors faculty with professorships, teaching, research awards

Released on 04/19/2012, at 2:00 AM
Office of University Communications
University of Nebraska–Lincoln

WHEN: Sunday, Apr. 22, 2012

WHERE: Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th Street

Lincoln, Neb., April 19th, 2012 —

            The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has conferred university professorships on seven faculty members. They will be recognized at Honors Convocation on April 22. Also honored on April 22 are 15 faculty awarded for their distinguished teaching, and six others for their teaching, service and research.

            Named university professorships are awarded based on a record of extraordinary scholarly or creative achievement and potential for continuing major accomplishments; documented evidence of excellence in teaching and outreach; and extensive involvement in service to the various university missions above the normal level of campus citizenship. These professorships carry a $15,000 stipend supported by endowed funds at the University of Nebraska Foundation. The professorships are conferred for five-year terms renewable upon review. Terms for the new professorships begin this summer.

            Nominations for named professorships were reviewed by the Committees for University and Weaver Douglas Professorships, which forwarded recommendations to the chancellor.

            The following faculty have been awarded named university professorships:

  • Amy Burnett, history, Paula and D.B. Varner University Professorship. Burnett joined UNL in 1989. Her areas of interest are early modern European history, particularly the Protestant reformation in Germany and Switzerland. She is on a Fulbright Fellowship at the Institute for European History, Mainz, Germany, during spring 2012. The Varner professorship honors the late D.B. Varner, former president and chancellor of the University of Nebraska and former chairman of the University of Nebraska Foundation, and his late wife, Paula.
  • Edgar Cahoon, biochemistry, George W. Holmes University Professor of Biochemistry. Cahoon is director of the UNL Center for Plant Science Innovation. He joined UNL in 2008; his research focus is on plant lipid metabolism with an eye toward improving nutritional and industrial uses for crops. George W. Holmes was a prominent Lincoln businessman, civic leader and philanthropist. Upon his death, an estate gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation established the professorship.
  • David Hage, chemistry, James Hewett University Professor of Chemistry. Hage joined UNL in 1989. His research group uses biological ligands in high performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis for the analysis of clinical, pharmaceutical and environmental agents. This professorship, open only to faculty in chemistry, was established in 1998 by a gift from James and Kathryn Hewett.

            The following professorships are supported by the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. The Willa Cather or Charles Bessey professorships honor a full professor with an exceptional record of distinguished scholarship or creative activity. The professorships, which carry a $5,000 stipend, are awarded for five-year terms and appointments may be renewed following review in the fifth year. The recipient may elect either the Bessey or Cather name as the criteria are identical.

  • Rick Bevins, psychology, was named Willa Cather professor. Bevins joined UNL in 1996, and established the Behavioral Neuropharmacology Laboratory. He earned his B.S. from Jacksonville State University and his Ph.D. from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He did postdoctoral research at the University of Kentucky.
  • Srikanth Iyengar, mathematics, was named Willa Cather professor. Iyengar has been associated with UNL since 2003. He holds a bachelor's degree from IIT-Madras, Chennai, India, and master's and doctoral degrees from Purdue University. He is part of UNL's internationally recognized commutative algebra research group.
  • Judy Walker, mathematics, was named Aaron Douglas professor. She joined UNL in 1996. She holds a B.S. from the University of Michigan and master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is chairman of the mathematics department and was the department's graduate chair from 2008-2011. She has earned the Haimo Award for distinguished teaching from the Mathematical Association of America. Her research focus is in algebraic coding theory. The John Weaver or Aaron Douglas professorship, established in 2008, is awarded to faculty holding the full professor rank who demonstrate sustained and extraordinary levels of teaching excellence and national visibility for instructional activities and/or practice. The professorship is a five-year renewable appointment and carries a $5,000 annual stipend.
  • Jaekwon Lee, biochemistry, was named Susan J. Rosowski associate professor of biochemistry. Lee joined UNL in 2003 and is associated with the UNL Redox Biology Center. He earned bachelor's and doctoral degrees in veterinary medicine from Chungnam National University in Korea, an M.S. from Seoul National University, Korea, and a doctorate from Rutgers University and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. His research program focuses on understanding mechanisms of nutritional and toxic metal metabolism, and molecular basis of defective metal metabolism in diseases. The Rosowski professorship, established in 2008, recognizes faculty at the associate professor level who have achieved distinguished records of scholarship or creative activity and who show exceptional promise for future excellence. The five-year appointment carries a $3,000 annual stipend.

            Faculty earning College Awards for Distinguished Teaching:

  • College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources: Charles Francis, professor of agronomy and horticulture.
  • College of Architecture: Peter Hind, assistant professor of architecture.
  • College of Arts and Sciences: Michael Dodd, assistant professor of psychology; Rose Holz, associate professor of practice of women's and gender studies; Christine Kelley, assistant professor of mathematics; Eric Malina, associate professor of practice of chemistry; Jack Morris, professor of biological sciences; Seanna Oakley, associate professor of English.
  • College of Business Administration: Subrata Chakrabarty, assistant professor of management.
  • College of Education and Human Sciences: William Lopez, associate professor of practice of teaching, learning and teacher education; Loukia Sarroub, associate professor of teaching, learning and teacher education; Yan Xia, associate professor of child, youth and family studies.
  • College of Engineering: Leen-Kiat Soh, associate professor of computer science and engineering; Lily Wang, associate professor of architectural engineering.
  • Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts: Eric Richards, assistant professor of music.

            The following UNL faculty members are recipients of awards for distinguished teaching, service and research:

  • Aaron Duncan, lecturer of communication studies and director of forensics, James V. Griesen Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Service to Students.
  • John Gates, assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, Harold and Esther Edgerton Junior Faculty Award.
  • Priscilla Hayden-Roy, professor of modern languages and literatures, Annis Chaikin Sorensen Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Humanities.
  • Guy Trainin, associate professor of teaching, learning and teacher education, Donald R. and Mary Lee Swanson Award for Teaching Excellence.
  • David Forsythe, professor of political science; and David Sellmyer, professor of physics and astronomy, receive Louise Pound-George Howard Distinguished Career awards for outstanding service to the university.

Writer: Kim Hachiya, University Communications, 402-472-8844

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