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UH has achieved a historic milestone after surpassing $110 million
in research awards this year.
UH was recognized by G.I. Jobs magazine as a Military Friendly
School, one that sufficiently facilitates the needs of veterans.
The publication will include the university in its 2010 Guide to
Military Friendly Schools.
Internationally
renowned Swedish researcher Jan-Åke Gustafsson, Robert A.
Welch Professor in the biology and biochemistry department, is
this year’s recipient of the Fernström Foundation’s
Nordic Prize. The prize is one of Scandinavia’s most prestigious
medical prizes. Gustafsson, whose research focuses on nuclear receptors,
also leads the new Texas-Indiana Virtual STAR Center. The center,
which recently received a $3.2 million Environmental Protection
Agency grant, will analyze the effects of various toxic chemicals
on the developing embryo.
Alumni
Meredith Atwell Baker (’95) has earned unanimous confirmation
by the U.S. Senate to the five-member Federal Communications
Commission board.
Patrick Buzzard (’92) was named the new chief of NASA’s
Moscow Liaison Office.
Barbara Padilla (’04) was named runner-up on NBC’s “America’s
Got Talent.”
Olympian Yulia Pakhalina (’05) placed first in the women’s
1-meter springboard diving event at the 13th International Swimming
Federation World Championships in Rome.
Werner Reinartz (’99), professor of marketing at the University
of Cologne, won the American Marketing Association Varadarajan
Award for Early Career Contributions.
Michael Twigg (’03) was named the Texas Education Agency
Region IV Secondary Teacher of the Year. Twigg is a teacher at
Waller Junior High School.
Haiyan Zhang (’06, ’02) member of the research department
at ConocoPhillips, and Bogdan Nita, math professor at Montclair
State University, received the Society of Exploration Geophysicists
J. Clarence Karcher Award. The award is given to individuals
under the age of 35 who have made major contributions to the
field of exploration geophysics and represent the promise of
future significant contributions. Nita was a postdoctoral researcher
and research assistant professor of physics and Zhang was a Ph.D.
physics student when they conducted the research that earned
them the award.
Faculty
College of Technology faculty won the American Society for Engineering
Education (ASEE) Mechanical Engineering Division 2009 Best Poster
Award at its annual conference and exposition. The poster illustrates
the article “A Two- Year Common Template for Mechanical
Engineering and Mechanical Engineering Technology,” which
appears in the 2009 ASEE proceedings. Enrique
Barbieri, Raresh
Pascali, Miguel Ramos and Dean William
Fitzgibbon co-authored
the article.
Eugene L. Chiappetta, professor of curriculum and instruction,
received the Texas Chemical Council Excellence in Industry Education
Award.
Diana S-L. Chow, professor of pharmacy, received the Houston
Intellectual Property Law Inventor of the Year Award along with
alumnus Harshal P. Bhagwatwar (’95) and Dr. Borje
S. Andersson,
professor at The University of Texas- M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
The award honors the three for developing intravenous formulations
of a pre-transplant drug which dramatically enhances the safety
of stem cell transplantation for leukemia patients.
Zhu Han, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering,
received a Best Paper Award at the IEEE (Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers Inc.) International Conference on Communications
for his paper “Crystallized Rates Region of the Interference
Channel via Correlated Equilibrium with Interference as Noise.”
Alex Ignatiev, director of UH’s Center for Advanced Materials,
has been chosen for the position of World Class University Professor
by the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea.
The appointment is for a five-year period. Law Center Dean Ray
Nimmer has again made the list of The Best Lawyers in America
in his dual specialties of information technology law and intellectual
property law.
Bernard R. Robin, associate professor of curriculum and instruction,
received the 2009 Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning
and Online Teaching Award for Exemplary Online Learning Resources.
The award recognizes Robin’s online resource, Educational
Uses of Digital Storytelling.
Arthur B. Weglein, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished
Professor of Physics and director of UH’s Mission- Oriented
Seismic Research Program, was one of three professors invited
to speak at the European Society of Exploration Geophysicists
subsalt imaging workshop in Cairo, Egypt.
Students
Mark Knoblauch, a student in the kinesiology program, received
a competitive doctoral research grant from the National Strength
and Conditioning Association for his dissertation, the “Effects
of Hypercholesterolemia on Myofiber Membrane Wounding.” The
award will be used to support his proposed dissertation research.
S. Siddiqi was selected as a 2009 Barbara Jordan Health Policy
Scholar by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Norah Vasen received the 2009 American Association for Health
Education/American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation
and Dance Outstanding Health Education Major of the Year Award.
Jason Spencer, a high school student-teacher, has been named
the State Student Teacher of the Year by the Texas Directors
of Field Experiences, and the National Student Teacher of the
Year by the National Association of Teacher Educators and Kappa
Delta Pi.
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Science
Foundation grant to initiate the Robert Noyce
Teacher Scholarship Program. The Scholars Academy received a $100,000 grant from the
Brown Foundation Inc. to support academic enrichment in the academically
competitive program that promotes scholarship and student success
for undergraduate students majoring in science, technology, engineering
and mathematics.
Hispanic
Business Magazine has named William V. Flores, president of the
University of Houston- Downtown, to its national Hispanic Business
100 Influentials 2009 list. Flores is one of eight individuals
honored in the magazine’s education sector.
Alumni
Mike Thaler (’94) is the new police chief
in Pasadena, Texas.
Jorge Ruiz (’08) has won the Hogg Foundation
Bilingual Scholarship for graduate study at the UH Graduate College
of Social Work.
Faculty
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $499,995 grant
to researchers at UHD and Texas A&M University to explore
why more women are not entering and continuing in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics degree programs and careers. Assistant
professor of psychology Anne Rinn is the co-principal investigator.
Ping Chen, associate professor of computer science and the director
of the UHD Artificial Intelligence Lab, received a $308,288 National
Science Fund grant to provide research experiences for undergraduates
focused on algorithm design and analysis in the College of Sciences
and Technology.
The U.S. Junior Chamber has named Jacqueline
Baly Chaumette, political science adjunct professor,
one of the 2009 Ten Outstanding Young Americans.
Robin Davidson, assistant professor of English, received a 2009
National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Translation.
Her translations from Polish Northwestern University Press will
be published in the book “The New Century: Poems by Ewa
Lipska.”
Gene Preuss, assistant professor of history, has published the
book “To Get a Better School System: One Hundred Years
of Education Reform in Texas.”
Merrilee Cunningham, associate professor of English, organized
and taught six creative writing workshops at the American Corners
Libraries in Macedonia and Serbia as part of a U.S. Department
of State program. This fall, she returned to Macedonia to plan
a library-reading program for Macedonia’s public libraries.
Aldine Independent Schools District (AISD) received the 2009
Broad Prize for Urban Education, which includes $1 million in
student scholarships. Viola Garcia, associate professor of education,
is the president of the AISD board of trustees.
Ken Johnson, assistant professor in geology and chemistry, is
co-principal investigator of a $56,000 grant from the Polish
Ministry of Science and Higher Education to study biotic and
functional structure of underwater ecosystems in hydrothermal
vents in the Devonian of Morocco.
Staff
Duraese Hall, disability services director, is the new president
of the Texas affiliate of the Association of Higher Education
and Disability.
Students
Nameera Baig, Melissa
Chan, Preeti Choudhary, Marlyn
Davila,
Abdul Jangda, Rameswari
Korrapati and Mustafa Mehmood showed
individual poster presentations at the Society for Advancement
of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science national conference.
Julio LaTorre was among eight students selected to take part
in the 10-week National Science Foundation Undergraduate Research
Experience in Evolution and Systematics program at the American
Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City. LaTorre analyzed
extinct mammals of South America in the AMNH Department of Vertebrate
Paleontology.
The Monster Diversity Leadership Program selected Antoine
Williams-Bailey to attend its Dallas conference. Edgar Gatica attended the Third
Annual Iowa Mathematical Field of Dreams Conference and StatFest
Conference at the University of Iowa.
The Model United Nations Association participated in the United
Nations observance of the International Day of Peace at the U.N.
headquarters in New York City.
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The
university presented Distinguished Alumni Awards to Christopher
J. Culbert (’86), NASA Johnson Space Center project manager
of lunar surface systems, and Delta Airlines CEO Richard
H. Anderson (’77). Yale University assistant professor of chemical
engineering Corey Wilson (’02) received the Early Achievement
Award. UHCL also bestowed Outstanding Professor Awards to associate
professor of instructional technology Caroline
M. Crawford and
Professor Emeritus Gretchen Mieszkowski.
George
Guillen, associate professor of biology and environmental science
and executive director of the Environmental Institute of Houston,
received a $544,343 four-year award from the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for his proposal “Armand Bayou
Water Quality Improvement Grant.” He also received a $40,000
award from TCEQ for “Galveston Bay Ecosystem Model Phase
I” and a $25,000 subcontract award from Texas Water Development
Board through Trinity River Authority for “Development of
Ecological Overlay Information and Data for Support of Senate Bill
3 (Science Advisory Committee) Environmental Flow Recommendations.”
Alumni
Sheryl Lightfoot Johns (’86) has been honored by the Conference
of Southwest Foundations with its Founders Spirit Award for her
many years of service to the organization.
Sandra Jobe, (’90,’01) has been recognized as District
4 Assistant Principal of the Year by the Texas Elementary Principals
and Supervisors Association. She is assistant principal at Frazier
Elementary in Pasadena Independent School District.
Rissie Louise Ownes (’94) has been reappointed as presiding
officer and chair of the Board of Pardons and Paroles by Gov.
Rick Perry. She has served on the board since 1997 and as chair
since 2003.
Faculty
Dorothea Lerman, professor of psychology, received a $132,000
two-year continuation grant from the Mental Health and Mental
Retardation Authority of Harris County for the project “Children
with Autism Spectrum Disorders.” She also received continuation
grants from local school districts for graduate assistantships
in Pasadena ($42,180), Pearland ($40,036) and Clear Creek ($42,180).
Camille Peres, assistant professor of psychology, received a
$126,043 two-year award from the National Science Foundation
for the collaborative proposal “Collaborative Research:
Online Statistics Education: An Interactive Multimedia Course
of Study II.”
Professor of fine arts Sandria Hu spearheaded a collaboration
between UHCL and the Czech Center Museum Houston for Czech visiting
artists to present workshops at the museum in conjunction with
the university’s International Consortium. A past recipient
of multiple Fulbright scholarships, Hu recently received a Fulbright
Specialists grant for a 2 ½-week stint at the University
of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia.
Students
Darcy Rivas and Terry
Smith received Mae Snowden Bruce Scholarships
to assist them in pursuing business degrees. Student Callie
Vaughn was one of 14 AmeriCorps members honored by the Harris County
Department of Education for their work in the Cooperative for
After-School Enrichment AmeriCorps Summer Blast program.
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GetEducated.com ranked UHV’s Bachelor
of Business Administration as the sixth-best buy in the country and the best in Texas. The group
evaluates schools by cost and quality.
UHV received two federal grants for the Nurse
Faculty Loan Program through the U.S. Department of Health & Human Resources. A
$14,801 grant and a $25,134 grant will provide loans to students
enrolled in the Master of Science in nursing program with a nurse
educator concentration.
Gov.
Rick Perry joined UHV President Tim Hudson, UHS Chancellor Renu
Khator, state Rep. Geanie Morrison, Texas Sen. Glenn Hegar, and
numerous city and county officials for a ceremonial signing of
House Bill 1056. The legislation paves the way for the university
to add freshmen and sophomores in fall 2010. The university also
is launching its new Degree in Three program, the first three-year
bachelor’s degree offered by a Texas public university. The
program will start in fall 2010.
Faculty
Economics instructor Chien-Ping Chen was honored with the 2009
Distinguished Teacher Award by the Cultural Division, Taipei
Economic and Cultural Office in Houston. The award recognizes
college educators who were once citizens of Taiwan and have promoted
academic and economic exchanges between the two countries.
Linda Dune, assistant professor in the School of Nursing, received
the Excellence in Nursing Bronze Award from the Good Samaritan
Foundation in Houston.
The article “Cross-Functional Integration and the Knowledge
Transformation Mechanism: Implications for New Product Development” by
Tanawat Hirunyawipada, assistant professor of business administration,
was accepted for publication in the journal Industrial
Marketing Management.
Mary Natividad, associate dean of the School of Education & Human
Development, was the keynote speaker at the Region 3 conference
of the Texas Association of Future Educators.
Vivian Nowazek,
assistant professor of nursing, was one of the presenters at
the 20th annual International Nursing Research Congress Focusing
on Evidence-Based Research in Vancouver. The Cuneiform Press,
a fine arts press previously based in Brooklyn, moved to UHV
in the fall along with its founder,
Kyle Schlesinger, who is a new communications and publishing
professor. The Cuneiform Press publishes up to six books a year
in press runs no larger than 500 editions.
Kathryn Tart, nursing dean, traveled to Vietnam to meet with
administrators from the University of Economics and Finance (UEF)
in Ho Chi Minh City. Officials from the two universities signed
a memorandum of understanding to give UEF students a streamlined
pathway for applying to UHV’s Second Degree Bachelor of
Science in nursing program.
Staff
Charlie Striedel, custodial supervisor in facilities; Billy
Lagal, community college program coordinator in the
Letting Education Achieve Dreams program; and Magen
Besancon, recruiting assistant
in the School of Arts & Sciences; were selected as the Employee
of the Month for June, July and August, respectively.
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