Faculty & Staff Recognition Archives:

• The International Astronautical Federation recently presented the Frank J. Malina Astronautical Medal to Dr. J-M Wersinger, Carr Professor of Physics. The award is presented annually to an educator who has demonstrated excellence in taking the fullest advantage of the resources available to him/her to promote the study of astronautics and related space sciences. http://www.iafastro.org/index.html?title=IAF_Newsletter_April_2010:_Page_9

• Dr. Annie Gorden, assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, was the recipient of the 2010 Delta Gamma Foundation Faculty Award. This honor is awarded to only one person each convention year. The award was established to recognize excellence in faculty members who teach undergraduate students.  Dr. Gorden was recognized at the Delta Gamma Convention this summer in Denver, Colo., at the Foundation Banquet on Friday, June 18.

• Auburn University physics Professor Francis Robicheaux was awarded "Outstanding Referee" by the American Physical Society.  The American Physical Society created the highly selective award program to recognize scientists who have been exceptionally helpful in assessing manuscripts for publication in the APS journals. The program will annually recognize 130 of the 42,000 currently active referees, but in this inaugural year a larger group of 534 referees has been selected for the “Outstanding Referee” designation. Like Fellowship in the APS and other organizations, this is a lifetime award. By initiating the program, APS expresses its appreciation to all referees, whose efforts in peer review not only keep the standards of the journals at a high level, but in many cases also help authors to improve the quality and readability of their articles—even those that are not published by APS. Read full story

• Kenneth M. Halanych, associate professor in the department of biological sciences, has been invited to be a keynote speaker at the Computational Phylogenetics and Molecular Systematics international conference in Moscow, Russia. In his speech, “Animal Phylogeny: New Insights from Molecular Data,” Halanych will discuss recent advances in the evolutionary relationships of animals. Additionally, Halanych has been asked to share his Antarctic research at a biology seminar.  Read full story

• Three COSAM faculty were recently honored at the Auburn University Faculty Awards for Excellence in Instruction, Research, and Outreach ceremony. Roland Dute of the department of biological sciences received the Gerald and Emily Leischuck Endowed Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching; Phillip Zenor of the department of mathematics and statistics received an Alumni Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award; and Jonathan Armbruster of the department of biological sciences was named an Alumni Professor.  Read full story

• Roland Dute of the College of Sciences and Mathematics is one of two recipients of this year's Gerald and Emily Leischuck Endowed Presidential Awards for Excellence in Teaching. An AU faculty member for 25 years, Dute is a professor of biological sciences, where he teaches freshman biology courses for majors and non-majors as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate courses. He also advises undergraduates in the zoology and pre-veterinary medicine curriculum, mentors graduate students and has served on 38 graduate student committees. Read full story

• The Office of the Vice President for University Outreach recently awarded more than $100,000 in competitive Outreach Scholarship Grants to fund six faculty initiatives for 2007-2008. They were selected from among 23 proposals submitted for the competitive grant program, which provides resources to connect research with pressing needs of the state. COSAM's Ming-Kuo Lee and Lorraine Wolf were awarded $15,000 for their proposal titled "Water Education for Alabama's Black Belt." This project will provide water resources education to public schools in several Alabama counties. Read full story

• Anne Gorden of the chemistry and biochemistry department was recently honored with the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). Winners receive a $5,000 grant which is intended to enhance their research and professional growth and result in new funding opportunities during the early stages of their careers. Read full story

• COSAM Development Officers Tammy Beck Hartwell and Sherri Rowton were honored by the AU Foundation Board at their annual awards. They received the award for the "Largest Percent of Increase in Amount of Gifts Received," with an 84% increase for 2006. They were also given the "Largest Amount of Total Programmatic Achievement Award" as the first in percent of increase in amount of gifts received, third in total amount of gifts received, third in percent of increase received for endowments, and fifth in total amount received for endowments.

• David King's 2002 discovery of proof of cosmic impact at the Wetumpka Impact Crater was recently recognized by Gov. Bob Riley with a proclamation designating March 4-10 as Wetumpka Impact Crater Week.  Read full story

• S. Davis Worley was featured in the February 5 edition of AU Report in "Profiles in Excellence." Read full story

• COSAM Advisor Beverley Childress has been chosen as the Student Organization Advisor of the Year for her work with Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED).  AED is an organization for students interested in health professions. The award was presented at the Student Government Association banquet on February 18.

• A research team composed of S. D. Loch, M. S. Pindzola and F. Robicheaux, as well as a number of post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students in the Department of Physics received notice that their computer allocation proposals to the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) in Oakland, California and to the National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee have both been approved for the 2007 calendar year. Read full story

• Robert Lishak was featured in the November 6 edition of AU Report in "Profiles in Excellence." Read full story
• As part of the university’s sesquicentennial celebration, Auburn honored four faculty members and recognized several others at the Faculty Awards for Excellence in Instruction, Research, and Outreach ceremony on September 7.

  Among those being honored were COSAM’s Robert Lishak, associate professor of biological sciences, and S. Davis Worley, professor and former interim chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Lishak is one of two recipients of this year’s Gerald and Emily Leischuck Endowed Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching; and Worley is the recipient of the Creative Research and Scholarship Award.

  Also recognized were COSAM’s own Kenneth Halanych of Biological Sciences and Michael McKee of Chemistry and Biochemistry as two of the recently named Alumni Professors for 2006. The professorships are sponsored by the Auburn Alumni Association, and are presented on the basis of research, publishing and teaching.  Read full story

• Holly R. Ellis, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was recently given an award through the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program of the National Science Foundation. The award is in the amount of $844,784 for five years.  Read full story

• Dave Worley's work with HaloSource on water purification technology was recognized recently. HaloSource, Inc of Redmond, Wash., is establishing a business presence in India to support its HaloPure water purification business expansion. Located in Bangalore, India, HaloSource Technologies Pvt. Ltd. will establish business development, manufacturing, supply chain and quality assurance functions. Read full story

• Auburn University’s Graduate School selected Olav Kallenberg of the College of Sciences and Mathematics as the 32nd Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lecturer.

  The Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lecturer is selected annually by a committee of previous recipients.  The honor is given in recognition of a faculty member’s service in support of graduate education at Auburn University.  Read full story

• AU professors, Frank Bartol of the Cellular and Molecular Biosciences “Peak of Excellence” Program and Raymond Henry of the Biological Sciences Department have been awarded a $1.5 million grant for three years through the National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NSF-EPSCoR).  Read full story

• James Saunders and Bill Hames of the College of Sciences and Mathematics Geology and Geography Department were recently awarded a prestigious grant by the U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources External Research Program.  Read full story