Return to: U of M Home
By Gayla Marty
Regents Professor Apostolos Georgopoulos (left) and President Bruininks at the Board of Regents meeting March 10. See March 13, below.
The 2006 Distinguished McKnight Professors are John Bischof, mechanical engineering; Karin Musier-Forsyth, chemistry; Ilja Siepmann, chemistry; and Christopher Uggen, sociology. Awards are made to mid-career faculty members, who receive a grant of $100,000 over five years and the title as long as they remain at the University. For more information, see Distinguished McKnight Professors.
University of Minnesota Foundation president and CEO Gerald Fischer (below) is one of two recipients of the Commonfund Institutionally Related Foundation award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The award recognizes individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to their foundations and to the the community of foundations. Fischer has headed the U of M Foundation since 1990. For more information, see the news release.
Foundation president and CEO Gerald Fischer
The new general manager of University Enterprise Laboratories (UEL) is Randall Olson, named today by the UEL board of directors. UEL is a nonprofit bioscience incubator, established in 2005, which houses the U's Office of Business of Develoment and 13 biotech startup companies. Olson brings a strong background in business development for the technology sector. He most recently served as a marketing and business development director for a law firm. For more information, see the news release.
Emily Freeman, a student in the creative writing master of fine arts program, wrote the winning entry in the 2006 fiction contest sponsored by Minnesota magazine, publication of the U of M Alumni Association. Her short story, "Par Avion," appears in the March-April issue. Freeman received a $1,500 prize. Read the story online at Minnesota Magazine Fiction Contest.
Four Twin Cities campus juniors have been named 2006 Barry M. Goldwater Scholars. The scholarships support students in math, science, and engineering who intend to pursue graduate study and research-oriented careers. Institutions are allowed to nominate up to four students, and this is the second consecutive year all four of the University of Minnesota nominees were selected as part of the national group of some 300 scholars. The students are Elizabeth Barnes, physics, Institute of Technology (IT); Akash Kumar, chemical engineering/biochemistry, IT; Eman Haidari, chemistry and genetics, cell biology, and development, IT and College of Biological Sciences (CBS); and Kimberly VanderWaal, ecology, evolution, and behavior, CBS. For more information, see the news release.
Three CLA honors students have been selected for 2006-07 Katherine Sullivan Scholarships, which allow outstanding students from any University campus to enhance their undergraduate education with a fifth year of overseas study. The recipients, this year all on the Twin Cities campus, are Elizabeth (Betsy) Burr, anthropology and art (South Africa); Mark Foster, acting, anthropology, and political science (Tanzania); and Theodore (Ted) Meinhover, global studies and mass communication (Indonesia). For more information, see the news release.
UMM associate professor Janet Schrunk Ericksen
Janet Schrunk Ericksen, associate professor of English at Morris campus (left), has been named as the 2006 recipient of the UMM Alumni Association Teaching Award. The award honors individual faculty members for outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. For more information, see the news release.
Crookston campus alumnus Nate Emery, '05, received the Student Conservationist Award from the Wildlife Society's Minnesota chapter. Emery received a degree in wildlife management and was active as president of the student chapter of the society and co-captain of the UMC football team. He was the driving force behind the Nature Nook project to restore habitat between Owen and Hill halls on campus, which includes boreal forest, prairie, and deciduous forest with oak savanna. For more information, see the news release.
Professor Leonard Polakiewicz
Professor of Slavic languages and literatures Leonard Polakieiwcz (right), Twin Cities, has been awarded the National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages Ronald Walton Award in recognition of a career "distinguished by selfless service and noteworthy contributions to the fostering of less commonly taught language initiatives in the United States." He will be honored at the council's conference in Madison, Wisconsin, April 28. For more information, see his faculty profile and the council Web site.
Seven of the ten McKnight Land-Grant Professors able to attend the
regents meeting March 10 stood with Regent Baraga, President
Bruininks, Provost Sullivan, and Vice Provost Dubrow. Photo by
Patrick O'Leary.
McKnight Land-Grant Professors (left), also honored March 10, were named this winter by the Office of the Provost and the Graduate School for the period July 1, 2006, to June 30, 2008. These awards support the University's most promising junior faculty at a crucial time in their professional careers. They receive research grants in each of two years and a research leave in the second year. Recipients are Demoz Gebre-Egziabher, Yongdae Kim, Efie Kokkoli, Ronald Krebs, Angus MacDonald III, Steven Manson, David Rapp, Stergios Roumeliotis, Mark Thomas, and Cynthia Weinig. Their research areas and disciplines are posted on the award Web site.
The Twin Cities campus Parking and Transportation Services team won a Classic Award from the Minnesota chapter of the Public Relations Society of America on March 9. Jacqueline Brudlos, writer and coordinator for the project, won the award for her work in a direct mail brochure, "A Blogger's Diary at the U," which promoted the U-Pass discounted bus pass. For more information, see "Blogger transit diary wins public relations award for the U."
Teaching award recipients will be honored at a ceremony on Monday, April 24, at the McNamara Alumni Center?s Memorial Hall, Minneapolis.
Advising award recipients will be honored at a ceremony on Friday, April 28, at the Radisson University Hotel, Washington Avenue S.E., Minneapolis.
Photo courtesy of UMM
UMD director of Continuing Education Student Support Services, Evening Classes, and Summer Term Karen Heikel is the new president-elect of the North American Associate of Summer Sessions. NAASS is an association of deans and directors of college and university summer programs located throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. For more information, see her staff page and the NAASS Web site.
See also U Awards & Honors. Most awards listed on this page post names of recipients.