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Awards and appointments December 2005

By Gayla Marty

College of Human Ecology interim dean M. Janice Hogan, professor of family social science

December 20

Professor of family social science Janice Hogan has been appointed interim dean of the College of Human Ecology (CHE), Twin Cities, January 1 through June 30. Hogan is an award-winning faculty member who has served previously as an associate dean and department head. Current dean Shirley Baugher has accepted an assignment to develop University relationships with institutions in Mexico, building on CHE's development of global programs linked to Minnesota's growing Hispanic community with roots in Mexico. Baugher has been a member of the Twin Cities campus faculty since 1993 and dean since 2000 and has extensive international experience. On July 1, departments in the College of Human Ecology will become part of new colleges of design and education as part of the U's strategic positioning process, now in progress. For more information, see the new releases announcing Hogan's and Baugher's appointments.

Frank Hirschbach, professor emeritus, Department of German, Scandinavian, and Dutch, Twin Cities campus, died December 12 at the age of 84. Hirschbach grew up in Germany, graduated from Yale University, and spent 33 years at the University of Minnesota. He was a champion of study abroad. A memorial service is scheduled on campus January 18, 5 p.m., Walter Library. For more information, see "In memoriam, Frank Hirschbach," on the department Web site. An obituary was published in the Star Tribune December 20.

Renowned architect and professor John Rauma died December 15 at the age of 79. Rauma earned his bachelor's degree at the University and later returned to Minnesota, teaching from 1956 to 1997 in what is now the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. A memorial service will be held December 21 in St. Paul. For more information, see the news release.

December 19

The Medical School's chief of pediatric urology, Leo Fung, died of cancer December 10 at the age of 42. He was honored in a memorial service December 18. Fung pioneered and advanced procedures used today for childhood urologic surgeries. At the time of his death, he was exploring the use of stem cells to restore damaged genital and urinary tissue in children. He lectured on medical advances in urology and added many scholarly book chapters and research publications in leading medical journals worldwide. For more information, see the Academic Health Center news release.

December 14

U Real Estate Office director Susan Carlson Weinberg (right) received the Lessenger Award for advancing real estate professional development in higher education at the Association of University Real Estate Officials (AUREO) conference in Virginia this fall. The award also recognizes outstanding commitment and contributions to AUREO. The U-wide Real Estate Office manages leasing, licensing, buying and selling, and permits related to University property. For more information, see U Real Estate Office and AUREO.

December 12

The Board of Regents have named Apostolos Georgopoulos a Regents Professor, the highest level of recognition given to faculty at the University. Georgopoulos is a professor of neuroscience, neurology, physiology, and psychiatry in the Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, Twin Cities, and a world authority on neural mechanisms underlying movement. For more information, see the news release.

Mikhail Shifman, professor of physics, Twin Cities, has been awarded the 2006 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society for outstanding contributions to the field. Shifman holds the Ida Cohen Fine Chair in Theoretical Physics. The prize will be presented at the APS meeting in Dallas, Texas, in April. For more information, see the Lilienfeld Prize and Shifman's faculty profile.

Pharmacy professor David Grant died December 9 at the age of 68. He joined the faculty in 1988 held the William and Mildred Peters Endowed Chair in the Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, Twin Cities, and was an international authority on the solid-state properties of drugs. For more information, see the news release.

Pediatric transplant pioneer William Krivit died December 8 at the age of 80. Krivit joined the U faculty in 1951 and devoted his life to finding cures for children with inherited metabolic diseases. He retired from the faculty in 1999 but continued to actively consult on cases. For more information, see the news release.

Robert Kane, professor of public health, received the Premio Enrico Greppi award from Italy's Societa Italiana di Gerontologia e Geriatria (SIGG) for dedicating his career to the improvement of the health and quality of life of elderly people worldwide. The award, given in memory of the founder of SIGG and the International Association of Gerontology, was presented to Kane when he spoke on the future of geriatrics at the SIGG annual meeting in Florence, Italy, in November. For more information, see SIGG and Kane's faculty profile.

December 5

U of M Rochester staff member Kari Stellpflug (left) has been named Educator of the Year by the Rochester Area Math Science Partnership. The unique partnership includes 12 school districts, three higher education institutions, IBM Corp., and Mayo Clinic. Since 1999, Stellpflug has been a key faculty member in the U of M Talented Youth Math Program (UMTYMP), instructing many of the most talented math students in grades 5-12 in the Rochester area. She is also involved in the U of M Rochester/IBM Computer Programming Workshop for teens and is a math teacher at Rochester Century High School. Stellpflug will receive her award December 13 at the Mayo Foundation House, Rochester. For more information about UMTYMP, see the program home page.

Richard "Pinky" McNamara resigned from the Board of Regents December 2 due to health reasons. A Twin Cities campus alumnus ('56), McNamara was a Golden Gopher football player and scholarship holder and has been an advocate and supporter of the U for decades. He was appointed to the at-large regent seat by Governor Jesse Ventura in 2001 and elected in 2003 for a term to expire in 2007. Under state law, Governor Pawlenty will appoint a replacement. See the story in UMNnews, "McNamara steps down, but his legacy continues."

A midshipman of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) Twin Cities, University of Minnesota, Andrew Ubbelohde, has been selected for the Olmsted overseas travel program. Ubbelohde is one of 11 chosen from a nationwide pool of 4,500. He is a senior at the University of St. Thomas. As a participant in the Olmsted program, he will travel to seven cities in India next year. For more information, see the news release.

December 2

Professor of soil physics and soil hydrology Satish Gupta (left) was inducted as a fellow of both the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) and the Soil Science Society of America at the groups' annual meetings in Salt Lake City November 6-10. Gupta was recognized for his research on how contaminants such as antibiotics and hormones emerge and are transported through soil and sediments and many other topics. American Society of Agronomy president Lee Sommers presented Gupta's certificate. For more information, see the ASA Web site and Gupta's faculty profile.

December 1

A Canada-U.S. Fulbright Fellow at the University of Minnesota this academic year is Kevin Chin, a Ph.D. student in educational psychology from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec. Chin will conduct research for his thesis on Canadian and U.S. teacher perspectives on human rights education at the University's Human Right Center. He has given several lectures and contributed to a new Minnesota state K-12 human rights curriculum, "This is My Home." For more information, see the Fulbright Student Program and the Human Rights Center.

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Awards, appointments, and other items of note about faculty, staff, and outstanding students and alumni of the University of Minnesota campuses are published here as reported and summarized in Brief, the internal news digest of the U. Submit items to Gayla Marty at marty001@umn.edu.

See also U Awards & Honors. Most awards listed on this page post names of recipients.