UH System Success Stories FEBRUARY 2009 


Jan-Åke GustafssonThe University of Houston recently received a $5.5 million Texas Emerging Technology Fund grant. The grant enabled UH to recruit
Jan-Åke Gustafsson, a renowned figure in the study of hormones and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Nobel
Assembly. The grant also supports the creation of the Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling by UH and The Methodist
Hospital Research Institute. Gustafsson will lead the center, which will focus on the development of next-generation pharmaceuticals and medical technologies.

Alumni

Katya Casey ('95) received the National Association for Women in Computing Houston Chapter 2008 Leadership in Technology Award.

Jill Finke ('07) received the 2008 Leadership Award for the Western Group Ambulatory Surgery Division of HCA Health Care.

Houston’s Lawndale Art Center selected El Franco Lee II ('07) as one of three participating artists in the Lawndale Artist Studio Program. More than 70 artists were in the running.

Christie McWilliams, Cy-Fair High School teacher, and David Stroup, principal investigator graduate assistant for the Supporting Urban Science and Math Educators grant at UH, have been selected to the 2008-2009 Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) International Emerging Leaders.

Shelia Redmon-Jones ('96) was one of 37 recipients honored as a Federation of Houston Professional Women 2008 Woman of Excellence.

Alumna Yulia Pakhalina ('05) and senior Anastasia Pozdniakova won silver medals in the synchronized diving competition for Russia at the Olympics in Beijing. Pakhalina also captured silver in the women's three-meter springboard diving.

Paige Vincent ('93) was honored with the Texas Pharmacy Association 2008 Local Association Leadership Award

Faculty

Andrew Achenbaum, professor of social work and history, has become a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council, which engages international leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Associate professor and architect Geoffrey Brune and William Truitt, assistant professor and architect, received the Texas Society of Architects Design Award. Brune was honored for his vision of the Burdette Keeland Design Exploration Center. Truitt was recognized for his planning study on Houston's near Northside neighborhood.

Ji Chen, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been named a distinguished lecturer by the Electromagnetic Compatibility Society, a division of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is among two nationwide chosen to hold the post until Dec. 31, 2010.

David Francis, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor, was named an American Educational Research Association Fellow.

Yuriy Fofanov, associate professor of computer science, biology and biochemistry, and Lennart Johnsson, Cullen Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Mathematics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, are winners of the second annual Itanium Solutions Alliance Innovation Contest for the humanitarian applications of their team's research.

Fazle Hussain, Roy & Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was named a Gordon Moore Distinguished Scholar by the California Institute of Technology. Hussain is the sole recipient of the award for 2008-2009 in the division of engineering and applied sciences. Additionally, Hussain was among five elected to the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas board of directors.

Elizabeth Gregory, English professor and director of the Women's Studies program, was named one of the 50 most influential women
in Houston by Houston Woman Magazine.

William Fitzgibbon, College of Technology dean, has been named a visiting scholar at the University of Delhi Lady Shri Ram College, one of India's highest-ranked colleges in undergraduate education in the humanities, social sciences and mathematics. The visiting scholar program is sponsored by the Mathematical Sciences Foundation.

The National Science Foundation has awarded $780,000 to a team of researchers to support the project "Building Geometric Databases for Anatomy-Based Spatial Queries." Ioannis Kakadiaris, Eckhard Pfeiffer Professor in the computer science department, is co-principal investigator.

Dmitri Litvinov, professor of electrical and computer engineering, has received grants totaling more than $500,000 to purchase Houston's first production-quality nanofabrication tool.

Robert H. McPherson, College of Education executive associate dean, will receive the 2008 Association for the Advancement of Psychology Advocacy Award. McPherson also was presented with the Houston Psychological Association Lifetime Contribution Award.

Montgomery "Monte" Pettitt, the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics, Computer Science, Biology and Biochemistry, has been awarded the distinction of Fellow from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Tyler Priest, professor and director of Global Studies at Bauer College of Business, received the Alice Hamilton Prize for Best Article Outside Environmental History for 2007. The award is one of four granted each year by the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) and recognizes Priest's article "Extraction Not Creation: The History of Offshore Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico" as the best article on environmental history published in a scholarly journal other than ASEH's Environmental History.

Jon Schwartz, associate professor of educational psychology, has been selected to receive the 2008 Researcher of the Year Award from the Advancement of Psychology Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity, Division 51. Schwartz also was elected to the Counseling Psychology Training Programs' Board of Counseling.

Staff

Alumna Diane Trippel ('93), manager of Web technology, received the International Association of Business Communicators, Houston Electronic and Digital Communication Bronze Quill Award of Excellence for the new UH.edu Web site.

Students

Cindy Arispe, student in the Graduate College of Social Work, has been appointed to serve on the Committee on Leadership in Aging, part of the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education.

Tom Chang, business student, was selected to be the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants’ Outstanding Student for 2008. The organization also presented him with the 2008 Accounting Excellence Award. Additionally, he was one of three recipients of the 2008 Ascend/Houston Society of CPAs.

Hayan Charara, creative writing student, has received a $25,000 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship.

The men's cross country team received the Conference USA Sport Academic Award. The team finished the 2007-2008 school year with a cumulative 3.5 grade point average for the highest team grade point average among the league’s men’s cross country teams.

Stephen Magness was named a C-USA Academic Medal winner. He, Ahmed Harb, Anthony Keller and Adrian Slusher also are members of the C-USA Commissioner's honor roll.

The Hispanic Business Student Association was named the 2008 National Hispanic Business Association Leadership Chapter of the
Year.

Babu John Mariadoss, business student, received the 2008 Doctoral Dissertation Award from the American Marketing Association Selling and Sales Management Special Interest Group for best dissertation in the field of selling and sales management.

Business student Dan Neely won the Government and Nonprofit Section 2008 Outstanding Dissertation Award of the American Accounting Association for his dissertation, "The Effectiveness of Governance Regulation in the Tax-Exempt Sector: Evidence from the Nonprofit Integrity Act of 2004."

 

Wells Fargo Bank is donating $100,000 to the College of Business for scholarships.

UHD Learners Community project, "Connections: A Mentoring Program" received a $66,950 grant from the Texas Grant's Public Benefit Grant Program. The grant supports a pilot mentoring program for participants in the Freshman Summer Success Program, a weeklong summer orientation for entering freshmen.

Tyra MontgomeryThe Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in the department of natural sciences recently received the American Chemical Society (ACS) approval for meeting the standards for excellence of undergraduate chemistry programs from the ACS Committee for Professional Training. Tyra Montgomery, associate professor of chemistry, is the degree coordinator.

 

Alumni

Anna Calvo ('02) was awarded Houston United Way’s 2008 Dorothy F. Caram Commitment to Leadership Award for her work in serving people with disabilities.

Autumn Jodzia ('08) was named the recipient of the UH Center for Public Policy’s spring 2008 Government Internship Award.

Steve Jones (’99) was named vice president with Merrill Lynch Commodity Partne'02) was selected for membership into the Houston A+ Challenge Regional Principal Leadership Academy.

Mario Salinas ('08) was selected for the 2008 Class of City Hall Fellows, a national program to develop leadership skills among young people.

Faculty

Kirk Hagen, associate professor of humanities, has written a new research book, "Second Language Acquisition: An Evolutionary Linguistics Approach," which was published recently.

Bhikkhu Basnagoda Rahula’s book "The Buddha's Teachings on Prosperity: At Work, At Home, In the World" was published. He is a
lecturer in English.

Thomas Workman, assistant professor of communication studies, published "The Real Impact of Virtual Worlds; How Digital Culture Shapes Students Minds," in The Chronicle Review.

Staff

Lucy Bowen, Web developer and publication specialist in the office of academic affairs, won the 2008 Distinguished Staff Merit Award for productive activity benefitting the university.

Students

Ben Khoo, Claudia Jimenez, Josie Nava and Natalie Sirisaengtaksin presented research at the Geological Society of America 2008 Joint Annual Meeting. Poonam Gulati, associate professor of biology and microbiology, and Penny Morris-Smith, associate professor of biology and geology, served as faculty research mentors.

Diana Lopez won a bronze medal in taekwondo at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Lopez won the medal in the 126-pound weight class.

The UHD Power Lifting Club won the World Association of Benchers and Dead Lifters National Collegiate Championship. Olga Hernandez, Chanel Lewis, Tommy Nguyen, Corina Sosa and Robert Nguyen placed first place in their weight class for either bench press or dead lift, or both. Gabriel Perkins is the team captain. John Hudson, assistant professor of English, is the coach.

Juan Diaz won the International Boxing Organization Lightweight Championship recently.


Jane ClaesThe Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded a $906,104 Laura Bush 21st Century Library Program grant to Jane Claes, assistant professor of school library and information science, for her proposal “School Librarians and Administrators Working Together: A Key to Student Success, Collaborative School Librarian Training.”


Alumni

Matthew Legg ('99) was named Chevron Corporation’s manager of employee relations, compliance and policy in Houston.

Steve Phelps ('80, '91) was re-appointed to the Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority. He serves as chairman of the Port of Houston Authority Pension Committee.

Faculty

Assistant professor of industrial hygiene and safety Magdy Akladios served as a contributing author and section editor of the recently published "The Safety Professionals Handbook."

Anne Coppenhaver, director of the Center for Educational Programs and lecturer in educational leadership, received a $16,569 award from the Texas Workforce Commission for her proposal, "Summer Merit Program at UHCL."

Sharon K. Hall's book, "Raising Kids in the 21st Century: The Science of Psychological Health for Children," was published. Hall is associate professor of psychology.

Professor of accounting Cynthia D. Heagy and Constance M. Lehmann, associate professor of accounting, collaborated on the sixth edition of "Accounting Information Systems: A Practitioner Emphasis."

Sandria Hu, professor of fine arts, recently had two one-woman shows running concurrently—one at The Grace Museum and the other at the Gallery Millennium in Prague, Czech Republic.

Assistant professor of economics Valery Lazarev received a $12,888 extramural award from the UH subcontract/National Science Foundation project "The Political Economy of Repression: Stalin and His Organs of State Security."

Kathryn I. Matthew, associate professor of reading and language arts, co-authored "Puppet Magic."

Charles McKay, professor emeritus and retired dean of the School of Science and Computer Engineering, presented "Why a System-of-Systems Engineering Approach is Essential for the Future of Space Exploration" to the Southwest Aerospace Professional Representative Association at Space Center Houston.

Camille Peres, assistant professor of psychology, received a one-year, $66,700 Schlumberger Collaborative award for her project "Software Ergonomics Assessment Tools."

Shreerekha Subramanian, assistant professor of humanities, received the Marilyn Mieszkuc Professorship in Women's Studies, the first privately funded professorship established at the university.

Jonathan W. Zophy, professor of European history, is having the fourth edition of his book, "A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe: Dances Over Fire and Water," published.

 


The Greater Texas Foundation awarded two grants to UHV. A three-year, $492,672 grant will fund the Access to Success program, which provides scholarships, tuition and books to area school district employees who want to become certified teachers. A $25,000 grant will fund the Generation Proud Scholarship Program, which gives scholarships to first-generation college students.

The Alcoa Foundation presented UHV with a $15,000 grant to fund three outreach efforts: the Letting Education Achieve Dreams Fiesta Day, College 101 Open Houses and Math and Computer Science Awareness Day.

The first Association of Independent Institutions 2009 Baseball Championship Tournament will be hosted by UHV. The tournament will allow nonconference-member baseball teams a clear path to the national championship in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

The School of Education & Human Development received a rating of accredited from the Texas Education Agency under its Accountability System for Educator Preparation.

Stephanie SolanskyBusiness professor Stephanie Solansky co-authored the paper "Radical Change Accidentally: The Emergence and Amplification of Small Change," which received the 2007 Best Paper Award from the Academy of Management Journal.

 

Alumni

Hernan Jaso ('00) was named 2008-2009 chairman of the President’s Regional Advisory Board, which serves as UHV's principal external advisory body. Jean Herman ('85), chief quality officer for the DeTar Healthcare System, also was named as a new board member.


Faculty

Biology professor and researcher Siva Somasundaram received a $10,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to continue his cancer research.

Kathryn Tart, School of Nursing dean, received the Scientific Poster Award for a presentation she made during the Parry Lectureship and Research Day at the Texas Woman's University Institute of Health Sciences-Houston Center.

Thomas Williams, author and chair of the humanities division in the School of Arts & Sciences, will conduct workshops during The Writer's Edge conference at the Universidad Internacional in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Staff

President Tim Hudson received the annual African American Chamber of Commerce/Victoria Education Award. Hudson also helped craft a new report issued by the Council of Public University Presidents and Chancellors.

Rosemary Baker, registration/scheduling assistant in Admissions and Records; Ana Laura Pineda, admissions analyst in Admissions and Records; and Harry Bashaw, an Internet technician in Information Technology; were selected as employees of the month for June, July and August, respectively.

Students

The Jaguars softball team was named a 2007-2008 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Scholar Team for maintaining a team grade-point average above 3.0.