Editor’s note: The information for this story includes excerpts from citations provided by the Office of University Development.
Thirty-four University of Michigan faculty members are receiving awards this fall in recognition of their notable contributions in the areas of teaching, mentoring, service and scholarship. A dinner and ceremony honoring the recipients will take place Oct. 3.
Here’s a look at this year’s awards and their recipients:
University Press Book Award
The University Press Book Award is presented to members of the university teaching and research staff, including emeritus members, whose books have added the greatest distinction to the Press List. Selections are made from books published within a span of two calendar years. The recipient is Pablo Alvarez.
Pablo Alvarez
Curator, Special Collections Research Center, University Library
Alvarez is known for his work promoting the use of manuscripts and early printed books at U-M and beyond, and for recently co-authoring “A Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Volume 1.”Since Alvarez joined U-M in 2010, he has collaborated with Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann to describe the extensive collection of Greek manuscripts at the U-M Library. The collection includes 110 codices and fragments ranging from the fourth to the 19th centuries CE, many acquired by former U-M professor Francis William Kelsey, for whom the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is named. Their book, which includes a digital version, is a powerful tool for students and scholars interested in various aspects of early Greek culture, including art, textual transmission and biblical studies.
University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorships
The University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorships were launched in 2019 to honor senior faculty members whose work has promoted the university’s goals around diversity, equity and inclusion. Recipients will hold their initial appointments for five years. They also will receive special faculty fellow status at the National Center for Institutional Diversity and spend at least one semester as a faculty fellow-in-residence. The recipients are Germine Awad, Roy Clarke, Kevin Cokley, Elizabeth R. Cole, Erica E. Marsh, Barbra A. Meek, Rogério M. Pinto and Sara Pozzi.
Germine Awad
University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; professor of psychology, LSA
Awad is a nationally recognized scholar in the psychology of Arab Americans and the causes and effects of racism toward the Middle Eastern, North African American and African American communities. Awad’s co-edited book “The Handbook of Arab American Psychology”has been hailed as groundbreaking and won the 2016 Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Book Award by the Arab American National Museum. She is also active in public engagement and has authored numerous op-eds related to racism, given talks to community organizations and worked with the U.S. Census on its racial categorization of MENA Americans. Awad joined the U-M faculty in August and has made exceptional contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion through her scholarship, teaching and service. Awards for her work include the Louise Spence Griffeth Fellowship for Excellence and the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Faculty Fellowship. At the national level, in the American Psychological Association, Awad leads an effort to create a new voting position representing the Arab/MENA slate and co-chairs the APA’s Eradication of Racism, Discrimination, and Hate Task Force. She also is co-founder and president of the American Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African Psychological Association.
Roy Clarke
University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; Marcellus L. Wiedenbeck Collegiate Professor of Physics, professor of physics, LSA
Clarke’s career-long commitment to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion is evidenced by an outstanding record of scholarship, leadership, service and mentoring. Clarke’s visionary initiatives demonstrate exceptional leadership in promoting students’ interest in the physical sciences and finding innovative ways to diversify access to research careers in the field. He was a pioneer in recognizing the need for a more flexible and individualized approach to graduate training when he founded U-M’s Applied Physics Program in 1987. The program became a transformative model for other graduate programs committed to broadening access to the physical sciences. A member of the U-M faculty since 1979, Clarke has a remarkable record of mentoring students, many of whom are now employed in influential positions in academia and national laboratories. He has supervised 37 Ph.D. students in physics and applied physics, including 20 from underrepresented groups and 10 women. Clarke received the first Imes-Moore Award, was named an Outstanding Mentor by the Sloan Foundation and won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. He also served on the board of directors of the National Physical Science Consortium, which awards graduate fellowships to women and minorities in physics, chemistry, math and computer science.
Kevin Cokley
University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; professor of psychology, LSA
Cokley is a renowned senior scholar with a record of outstanding contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion in every aspect of his research, teaching and service. He is widely known for his work on racial identity, challenging the notion that African American students are anti-intellectual, and in recent years on the impostor phenomenon among minority students. Cokley’s research has culminated in more than 75 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and an edited book “Making Black Lives Matter: Confronting Anti-Black Racism.” A member of the U-M faculty since August, Cokley received the Distinguished Psychologist Award from the Association of Black Psychologists and the Outstanding Contribution to Scholarship on Race and Ethnicity Award from the Society of Counseling Psychology. He has published nearly 50 op-eds on topics such as police shootings of Black people, racial disparities in school discipline and critical race theory. Cokley has served on the American Psychological Association Task Force on Race and Ethnicity Guidelines in Psychology and the APA Task Force on the Elimination of Racism, Discrimination and Hate. Cokley recently chaired the APA Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention and Training in Psychology Task Force, and is president of the APA Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race.
Elizabeth R. Cole
University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; professor of women’s and gender studies, of psychology and of Afroamerican and African studies, and director of the National Center for Institutional Diversity, LSA
Cole is widely known for her commitment to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion through her scholarship, on-campus leadership, teaching, mentoring and national professional activities. Her research program has illuminated deep evidence of the value of considering an individual’s multiple social positions, such as gender, race, sexual orientation, ability and status in the field of psychology. Carefully addressing the most common sources of resistance and misunderstanding among psychologists in a widely cited paper in AmericanPsychologist, Cole laid out recommendations for how to conduct research that seriously considers the multiple category memberships people hold, as well as the simultaneous features of privilege and disadvantage that an individual may experience. Her research program constitutes a major contribution to making Black women’s lives visible and intelligible in psychology. A U-M faculty member since 2000, Cole is the director of the National Center for Institutional Diversity and from 2020-22 was the associate chair of diversity initiatives in LSA’s Department of Psychology, where she worked to shape and develop transformative policy and practices around DEI issues. Throughout her career, she has been an exceptionally important mentor to women graduate students and junior faculty.
Erica E. Marsh
University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; S. Jan Behrman Collegiate Professor of Reproductive Medicine and professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Medical School; and professor of women’s and gender studies, LSA
Marsh is widely recognized for her contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion through her scholarship, teaching and service. Since 2016, Marsh has been chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Michigan Medicine. She also serves on the Community Health Coordinating Committee for Michigan Medicine and is associate director of the Michigan Institute of Clinical and Health Research. Her contributions to CHCC helped secure Michigan Medicine’s $9 million investment in community health needs. A member of the U-M faculty since 2016, Marsh’s research focuses on comparative reproductive health across populations, seeking to understand the challenges of reproductive disorders by addressing the pathophysiology, social determinants and clinical impact, patient experience and community impact of the diseases from symptoms and diagnosis to treatment and health. Marsh’s most recent work focuses on health care disparities in African American and Hispanic females, including the prevalence, impact and treatment of uterine fibroids, obesity and fertility. She directs the Women’s Health and Reproductive Disparities Collaborative, which she founded in 2016 to serve as a research hub and a home for fellows, residents, medical students and undergraduates seeking mentored research opportunities in health care disparities in women’s health.
Barbra A. Meek
University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; professor of anthropology, of linguistics and of American culture, and associate dean of social studies, LSA
Meek has made outstanding contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion through her scholarship, teaching and service. Meek has served as a visionary leader in promoting DEI within anthropology, American culture and Native American studies. Her work has been instrumental in putting U-M on the map to becoming one of the top institutions for Indigenous studies. A U-M faculty member since 2001, Meek’s current research expands upon the relationships between linguistic structure, semiotics and ethno-racialization. Within the Department of Anthropology, she has co-chaired the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, and was associate chair and director of graduate studies. Within the Department of Linguistics, Meek has mentored students interested in Native American language, cultures and the social and historical factors that affect the maintenance and vitality of Native American languages and cultures. In recognition of her efforts, she was presented with the Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award in 2018. As director of the Native American Studies Program, Meek has worked to increase the number of Indigenous faculty who focus on Native American studies. Meek spearheaded an important proposal for a cluster hire of Indigenous scholars that was funded by the Provost’s Anti-Racism Faculty Hiring Initiative.
Rogério M. Pinto
University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; associate dean for research and innovation, Berit Ingersoll-Dayton Collegiate Professor of Social Work and professor of social work, School of Social Work; and professor of theatre and drama, School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Pinto has made outstanding contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion through his scholarship, teaching and service. His community-engaged research, funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health, focuses on the impact of interprofessional collaboration on the delivery of evidence-based services to minority racial, ethnic and sexual groups in the U.S. and Brazil. Pinto has made critical contributions to shaping the field of HIV prevention research. Pinto joined the U-M faculty in 2015. A dedicated educator, his teaching focuses on social justice, LGBTQ+ issues and implementation science. He has distinguished himself as a mentor to master’s and doctoral students. Pinto was a member of the School of Social Work’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee in 2015-16. He is serving two terms as the school’s associate dean for research and innovation. For the past five years, Pinto has co-chaired SSW’s Faculty Allies for Diversity Committee, which focuses on advancing minority students. In 2020, on behalf of FADC, he accepted the CEW+ Carol Hollenshead Inspire Award for Excellence in Promoting Equity and Social Change. In 2021, he was awarded the Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award from the Office of the Provost.
Sara Pozzi
University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor; professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences, College of Engineering; and professor of physics, LSA
Pozzi is an internationally recognized researcher in nuclear detection and an advocate for institutional transformation to achieve greater diversity, equity and inclusion. She is the founding director of two large consortia of multiple universities and national laboratories in nuclear security and has graduated more than 25 Ph.D. students, including the first African American female Ph.D. recipient in the history of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences. Pozzi joined the U-M faculty in 2008. As the inaugural director of DEI for the College of Engineering, she has not only addressed issues of inequity within the college, but she has become a nationally recognized expert in this area. For five years, Pozzi served on the ADVANCE STRIDE committee, teaching workshops on equitable faculty recruiting to hiring committees across U-M. In 2020-21, she led the college’s effort to establish five community teams charged by the dean to develop plans for DEI education for every faculty member, staff member and student at CoE. Pozzi also created and for three years has led the highly successful Michigan Engineering DEI Lecture Series, featuring DEI experts from U-M and around the country.
Collegiate Research Professorship
The Collegiate Research Professorship honors people who hold at least a 60% appointment at the rank of research professor. Selection criteria includes exceptional scholarly achievement and impact on advancing knowledge in science, engineering, health, education, the arts, the humanities or other academic fields of study. The recipient is Mihaela Banu.
Mihaela Banu
Collegiate Research Professor; research professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and associate chair for doctoral engineering and research, Integrative Systems and Design Division, College of Engineering
Banu is a distinguished scientist, educator and mentor recognized for her multidisciplinary research in plant biology and materials science. Banu has successfully advanced knowledge in engineering at the societal level with environmentally friendly transportation and health care. Her natural-based sustainable materials have led to a 10% reduction in carbon footprints in transportation. Banu is also known for her research in developing a smart dental implant that provides a robust solution for nearly 160 million people suffering from edentulism — toothlessness — who currently are not candidates for dental implants. Her research program has attracted the interest of private clinicians and has also spawned patents and multiple research proposals. A member of the U-M faculty since 2013, Banu is a dedicated educator and mentor. With a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, Banu established the CO2 Neutral Student Research Group within the U-M Global CO2 Initiative and the “Jyoti Mazumder” Additive Manufacturing Student Club that is a magnet and home for students underrepresented in mechanical engineering, including women and minority students. For this effort, she was awarded the 2021 Willie Hobbs Moore Achievement Award.
Distinguished Faculty Achievement Awards
The Distinguished Faculty Achievement Awards honor senior faculty who consistently have demonstrated outstanding achievements in the areas of scholarly research or creative endeavors, teaching and mentoring of students and junior colleagues, service and other activities. The recipients are Jill Becker, Kathleen Collins, Rada Mihalcea, Stephen Rush and Melanie Sanford.
Jill Becker
Patricia Y. Gurin Collegiate Professor of Psychology, professor of psychology, LSA; research professor, Michigan Neuroscience Institute, Medical School
Becker is a world-renowned researcher in biological psychology, neuroscience and the psychological sciences. A pioneer in the study of sex differences in the neural mechanisms of addiction and motivated behavior, Becker’s groundbreaking research has effectively and repeatedly challenged existing standards and broken new ground to understand the nature of sex differences in the brain and their effects on behaviors. Her novel contributions have changed how neuroscientists view the brain and how hormones can impact behavior through neurobiological mechanisms. Since joining the U-M faculty in 1983, Becker has received numerous awards for her outstanding mentorship, particularly of female scientists, and in efforts to facilitate the representation and career trajectories of women in neuroscience, psychology and related scientific disciplines. Becker has been published in the top journals in her field, including Brain Research Reviews, Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, Journal of Neuroscience, Neuropsychopharmacology, Neuroscience Lettersand Cell Metabolism. In recognition of her influential research, Becker’s awards include the Neal Miller Distinguished Lecture Award from the American Psychological Association, Excellence in Research Award from LSA, and she was named a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Kathleen Collins
Professor of internal medicine, of microbiology and immunology, associate dean for physician scientist education and training, and director of Medical Scientist Training Program, Medical School
Collins is a renowned physician-scientist whose research has advanced the understanding of why human immunodeficiency virus causes persistent lifelong infection and the disease AIDS. Collins’ accomplishments over the past two decades in HIV/AIDS research have established her as a preeminent researcher, scholar, educator, mentor and international thought leader in this area of biomedical research. Collins’ work focuses on how to counter the immuno-evasive effects of HIV accessory proteins to provide better treatments for people infected with HIV. A member of the U-M faculty since 1998, Collins promotes diversity, equity and inclusion through her efforts on the American Society of Clinical Investigation Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, and via direct mentoring. For these efforts, she was an invited speaker at the National Institutes of Health Bridging the Gap Seminar in 2019, held at the 14th Biennial Bridging the Career Gap Workshop: Promoting Diversity in Biomedical Research. She was selected to be a member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine in 2016. In 2019, she was chosen to be the editor in chief of the ASCI journal JCI Insight for a five-year term.
Rada Mihalcea
Janice M. Jenkins Collegiate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, and professor of electrical engineering and computer science, College of Engineering
Mihalcea is an internationally acclaimed researcher in the field of natural language processing, the area of artificial intelligence focused on how machines make use of human language. Mihalcea is known for her pioneering work using web-based statistics for a variety of natural-language-processing applications. Mihalcea’s seminal work, TextRank, a graph-based ranking model, introduced a new approach to capturing the salience of text in an unsupervised manner. Mihalcea joined the U-M faculty in 2013. She has continually pushed the boundaries of natural language processing, defining new research directions at the intersection of language, society and AI technology. Mihalcea has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists. At U-M, she directs the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Strongly committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, Mihalcea has initiated numerous diversity and outreach programs, including Girls Encoded, specifically designed to recruit and retain women in computer science. Her work as an advocate for women in computing at U-M was recognized in 2018 with the Carol Hollenshead Award, and in 2019 with the Sarah Goddard Power Award. During 2018-22, Mihalcea served as the vice president and president of the Association for Computational Linguistics, the scientific and professional organization for people working on natural language processing.
Stephen Rush
Professor of dance/music technology, School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Rush, a renowned composer, educator and scholar, has made extraordinary contributions to the School of Music, Theatre & Dance and its students. A member of the U-M faculty since 1987, Rush has taught in the departments of Music Theory, Composition, Dance, Music Education, Jazz and Performing Arts Technology. In 2015, he received a Teaching Innovation Prize for coordinating the Creative Arts Process course taught to more than 600 students. Since 2005, Rush has taken more than 150 students to an immersive music, dance and yoga summer program in Mysore, India. He has written six operas and four symphonies and has collaborated with nearly every ensemble at SMTD. Rush’s most recent work is a video opera that includes sung transcriptions of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in a fictional presentation of a dialogue after their visits to India and Mecca. He also founded and has directed the U-M Digital Music Ensemble for the past 25 years. For this work, he won the Smithsonian Award for Innovation in Technology for his annual computer-assisted installations. A member of the Faculty Senate Committee for Anti-Racism, Rush authored an essay on anti-racist music theory fundamentals, the first of its kind.
Melanie Sanford
Moses Gomberg Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor; and professor of chemistry, LSA
Sanford, a widely recognized scientist and educator, conducts research across a broad range of areas, most notably organic and inorganic chemistry. Sanford is an expert in the design and synthesis of organic and inorganic molecules, as well as in the mechanistic study of transition metal-catalyzed processes. Sanford’s work on high valent palladium and nickel intermediates now appears in the standard textbooks. Her awards and honors include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the Blavatnik National Award in Chemical Sciences. Sanford is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is an executive editor for the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society. Sanford has published more than 200 scientific articles that have garnered over 28,000 citations. A member of the U-M faculty since 2003, Sanford chaired the Third Century Initiative Committee, which oversaw $25 million in grants to promote experiential learning across all U-M schools and colleges from 2012-16. She also is an exceptional educator and mentor, having recently been awarded the Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award.
University Librarian Recognition Award
The University Librarian Recognition Award recognizes active and innovative early career achievement in library, archival or curatorial services. It is presented to librarians, archivists or curators who have no more than eight years’ practice in their profession. The recipient is Callum Carr.
Callum Carr
Assistant archivist, UM-Flint Library
Carr is an assistant archivist at the Frances Willson Thompson Library, UM-Flint. Carr’s research focuses on the nexus of community memory and established history, and the role archives play. Their work provides access to historic materials through outreach, description and digital collections. Carr has successfully managed the collection by bringing it into the modern era, curating and preserving the new collections and managing the UM-Flint archives collections. Their work has been instrumental in digitizing all parts of the collection, managing the collection using ArchivesSpace and publishing finding aids online and making them searchable. During the pandemic, Carr began working with other librarians from the FWTL on a program titled “Archiving Pandemic and Protest.” The program focuses on the Flint community and their experiences and stories during the pandemic and the protests that have been occurring over the past couple of years. A member of the UM-Flint faculty since 2018, they have served on the board of directors of the Genesee County Historical Society and the Whaley Historical House Museum. Carr’s hard work has already had a huge impact on the FWTL, making it a more visible resource for the community and for the campus.
Faculty Recognition Awards
The Faculty Recognition Awards are intended for mid-career faculty members who have demonstrated remarkable contributions to the university through achievements in scholarly research or creative endeavors; excellence as a teacher, adviser and mentor; and distinguished participation in service activities of the university and elsewhere. Eligible candidates include full professors with no more than four years in rank, as well as tenured associate professors. The recipients are Amy Chavasse, Hui Deng, Xianzhe Jia, Kerri A. Pratt and Stephen Smith.
Amy Chavasse
Professor of dance, School of Music, Theatre & Dance
Chavasse is a globally celebrated dance artist recognized for her innovative pedagogy inside and outside the classroom. Chavasse’s creative endeavors have positively impacted the field of dance in many ways, using choreography as an invaluable methodology to research social-political-ecological phenomena and hierarchical social justice ecosystems. Her choreographic works have been featured widely across the United States and the globe. A U-M faculty member since 2006, Chavasse has created innovative new courses for the BFA and MFA curriculum sequence. She has collaborated with dance alumna Catherine Coury, the U-M International Center, and the Office of the Provost’s global engagement team to establish the department’s first study abroad program, inaugurated in 2019. With a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, Chavasse has spent the last two years incorporating anti-racist and culturally relevant teaching into her courses. She also found adaptive strategies that respond to a bracing assessment of research and artmaking in the academy and survival in the midst of a global pandemic and burgeoning social justice movements. Chavasse’s reputation as a dance artist is international in scope, and from this sustained work she has established numerous exchanges between U-M and celebrated artists in Argentina, Italy and China.
Hui Deng
Professor of physics, LSA
Deng is recognized internationally for her research in quantum optics, nanostructures and physics. In 2017, Deng was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society for her pioneering contributions to fundamental physics and applications of matter-light coupled systems. In 2018, she was elected a fellow of the Optical Society of America. A member of the U-M faculty since 2008, Deng is the recipient of the prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation, presented annually to 20 globally renowned academics worldwide in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments in research to date and their exceptional promise for the future. A caring teacher and mentor, she has taught a wide range of courses, from introductory physics to senior and graduate-level courses in physics. Deng has published in prestigious multidisciplinary journals, including NatureCommunicationsand Physical Review Letters. Within the physics department, she has served as the adviser for the Society of Physics Students and the Society of Women in Physics, and as an official mentor to graduate students. Deng currently serves on the Quantum Science Working Group and the advisory committee to the vice president for development.
Xianzhe Jia
Associate professor of climate and space sciences and engineering, College of Engineering
A physicist who teaches space physics and space weather modeling, Jia’s discoveries have had a profound impact on the field of planetary science. As a result of his work, the bulk of the water in the solar system is no longer thought to be sequestered in planet Earth. The new discoveries by Jia and colleagues have shown that most of the water in the solar system is in the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn’s moons, and in Uranus and Neptune. His pioneering research and international leadership have earned Jia leadership roles on NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer missions. He is the deputy team leader for the Magnetometer Team on Europa Clipper and leads the inductive sounding efforts for both the NASA and ESA missions to the Galilean satellites near Jupiter. The results of the two international flagship missions will ensure that U-M remains at the forefront of planetary research. A member of the U-M faculty since 2010, Jia has received numerous U-M research and teaching awards, including the Research Faculty Recognition Award, Ted Kennedy Family Faculty Team Excellence Award and Henry Russel Award.
Kerri A. Pratt
Associate professor of chemistry and of earth and environmental sciences, LSA
Pratt is an internationally acclaimed scientist and leader in the field of Arctic atmospheric chemistry. Pratt’s pioneering research in the Arctic tackles the urgent need to understand atmospheric and multiphase processes. Her work examines the chemical interactions of atmospheric trace gases, particles and snow in the Arctic and wintertime environments. Her group reported the unexpected observation in the humid summertime Arctic of solid atmospheric particles, providing the first observational evidence of a previously hypothesized mechanism. Later, Pratt’s research group proved a long-standing hypothesis and quantitatively explained the loss of the greenhouse gas ozone near the Arctic’s surface atmosphere. A member of the U-M faculty since 2013, Pratt is an accomplished educator. She was recognized with the 2020 LSA Class of 1923 Memorial Teaching Award and the 2017 LSA Individual Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education. Pratt has taken several undergraduate researchers on field expeditions to the Arctic, southern Alaska and northern Michigan. She is the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including the 2021 American Geophysical Union Atmospheric Sciences Ascent Award and 2021 American Meteorological Society Henry G. Houghton Award. She was selected to serve on the scientific steering committee of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project.
Stephen Smith
Associate professor and associate chair of ecology and evolutionary biology, and associate curator of ecology and evolutionary biology, LSA
Smith is a world-renowned researcher in ecology and evolutionary biology. His research focuses on systematics, the study of similarities and differences in the morphology and other phenotypic traits of existing organisms, supplemented by the fossil record and molecular data in the form of genomic and DNA and RNA sequences. A member of the U-M faculty since 2012, Smith and his team have developed innovative techniques and tools that have been implemented in the form of open-source software made freely available to the scientific community. He has published more than 100 high-impact papers in prominent journals. Smith has had a major impact on undergraduate education through his service as associate chair for undergraduate studies in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, as well as through service on a college-level committee. He has also served U-M through his thoughtful and effective advocacy for inclusivity in STEM courses. Smith continues to contribute to the broader scientific community, recently serving as guest editor for a special issue of the American Journal of Botany,and currently is serving as associate editor of the journal Systematic Biology. He also consults, reviews proposals and serves on review panels for the National Science Foundation.
Distinguished University Professorships
The Board of Regents created the Distinguished University Professorships in 1947 to recognize senior faculty for exceptional scholarly or creative achievement, national and international reputation, and superior records of teaching, mentoring and service. Faculty selected for the recognition, in consultation with the dean of the school or college in which they hold an appointment, name the professorship after a person of distinction in their field of interest. The duration of the appointment is unlimited. Newly appointed Distinguished University Professors are expected to deliver an inaugural lecture. The recipients are Eva L. Feldman, Hosagrahar Jagadish, Webb Keane, Peggy McCracken and Kamal Sarabandi.
Eva L. Feldman
James W. Albers Distinguished University Professor of Neurology, Russell N. DeJong Professor of Neurology, and professor of neurology, Medical School
Feldman is an internationally acclaimed clinician-scientist, a leader in health care and academic medicine. and a gifted educator and mentor. Feldman is widely recognized for her groundbreaking research in ALS, a fatal nerve affliction commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Her work in developing a cellular therapy for ALS resulted in a first-in-human clinical trial. As a researcher, Feldman established the NeuroNetwork for Emerging Therapies, a global team of more than 30 scientists and clinician-scientists dedicated to understanding and finding new treatments for a range of neurological diseases. A member of the U-M faculty since 1987, Feldman is a dedicated educator committed to integrating the training of the next generation of scientists, clinician-scientists and practicing clinicians with her transformative work on treatment approaches for many significant neurological disorders. In doing so, Feldman has elevated the education of future leaders in scientific fields at U-M. A strong advocate for women, she partnered with a team of remarkable women at U-M to create a recently funded NIH RO1 project focused on a peer mentoring program to overcome obstacles for mid-career women clinician-scientists.
Hosagrahar Jagadish
Edgar F. Codd Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Bernard A. Galler Collegiate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, College of Engineering; and director, Michigan Institute for Data Science
Jagadish is one of the nation’s most visible and influential leaders in database management and the broader area of data science. Through innovations ranging from database forms to natural language queries, Jagadish has led the “democratization” of data access. In 2019, he became the director of the U-M Institute for Data Science, which includes more than 400 faculty members from more than 60 departments, and has refined its focus to bring transformative change at U-M. In 2016, he developed the first massive open online course on data science ethics. A member of the U-M faculty since 1999, Jagadish also co-led the effort to create a new master’s degree in data science, which involves the College of Engineering, LSA, School of Public Health and School of Information. He served on the board of directors of the Computing Research Association, the nation’s leading organization to advance the field of computer science research, from 2009-18. Since 2021, Jagadish has chaired the board of the Academic Data Science Alliance. Jagadish was instrumental in the effort that landed a $38 million National Science Foundation grant for the U-M Institute for Social Research to build a research data ecosystem.
Webb Keane
George Herbert Mead Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology, and professor of anthropology, LSA
Keane is a sociocultural anthropologist best known for his work on ethics, semiotics and comparative religion. Keane’s intellectual dynamism has shaped his performance as a teacher and mentor, and is fuel for the invaluable service he provides to the Department of Anthropology in LSA and to the larger discipline of anthropology. His ethnographic fieldwork has been undertaken in Indonesia, and he continues to focus some of his major writings on that country. Yet the scholarly range and significance of Keane’s work is far wider, spanning anthropology, history, philosophy, religious studies, social psychology and southeast Asian studies. A U-M faculty member since 1997, in the past 10 years Keane has published more than 30 articles, reviews, interviews and book chapters, as well as two books. His work on religion is now considered foundational, as are his discussions of semiotic ideology. Keane’s analyses of materiality, the objects we encounter in everyday social life, the cultural contexts of their use and the very concept of materiality itself, have fundamentally changed the way these topics are studied by anthropologists and linguists.
Peggy McCracken
Anna Julia Cooper Distinguished University Professor of Medieval French Literature; Mary Fair Croushore Professor of Humanities; Domna C. Stanton Collegiate Professor of French; professor of French, of women’s and gender studies, and of comparative literature, and director, Institute for the Humanities, LSA
McCracken is a field-defining scholar, valued educator and academic leader in LSA. She has served as director of the Institute for the Humanities since 2017, and is widely recognized as a preeminent scholar of medieval French literature and culture whose work has focused on the themes of gender, sexuality, spirituality, posthumanism and the body. McCracken is the author of three influential monographs, three co-authored books, six co-edited collections and numerous articles and book chapters. She serves on the editorial boards of the most prominent journals in the field and has held leadership positions in national professional organizations. A member of the U-M faculty since 1999, she has been at the forefront of creatively advancing humanities research at U-M, serving as the inaugural director of the Humanities Collaboratory. In 2020, McCracken’s vision and leadership were instrumental in garnering a $1.14 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand programming at the Institute for the Humanities Gallery. McCracken has received numerous awards, including a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at the Newberry Library and the John H. D’Arms Award for Distinguished Graduate Mentoring in the Humanities.
Kamal Sarabandi
Fawwaz T. Ulaby Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Rufus S. Teesdale Professor of Engineering, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, College of Engineering
Sarabandi is widely known for his research in radar remote sensing in the field of applied electromagnetics. His radar calibration techniques, miniaturized antenna designs for wireless devices, metamaterials and Synthetic Aperture Radar inversion algorithms represent seminal contributions. Sarabandi is a member of the NASA Soil Moisture Active and Passive Mission science team, and for his scientific contributions in this mission he received a NASA Group Achievement Award. He led a major center, supporting 18 faculty and their students, for microelectronics and sensors funded by the Army Research Laboratory from 2008-18. He was also elected to the National Academy of Inventors in recognition of his numerous patents and the four startup companies he established. Sarabandi also served on the NASA Advisory Council, providing technical advice to the NASA administrator. A member of the U-M faculty since 1989, Sarabandi is an exceptionally talented educator and an inspirational mentor of graduate students. He has supervised 61 Ph.D. theses and numerous master’s students and postdoctoral fellows. He has been recognized with the Faculty Recognition Award and the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of the IEEE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Jackie Lawson Memorial Faculty Governance Award
The Jackie Lawson Memorial Faculty Governance Award reflects distinction in faculty governance service to the entire university that reaches beyond the local campus confines of Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint. The recipient must have excelled in building a positive relationship between the Ann Arbor campus and one or both regional campuses, as exemplified by Lawson’s career. The recipient is J. Caitlin Finlayson.
J. Caitlin Finlayson
Professor of English literature, College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters, UM-Dearborn
Finlayson is a highly respected scholar, collaborator and academic. While serving as vice chair of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs from 2020-22, Finlayson focused on strengthening relationships among the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses. Her dedication to bringing transparency to faculty governance and to building an equitable, just and sustainable university community has been invaluable. Most recently, Finlayson worked collaboratively to address many of the challenges all three campuses have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her main areas of focus were the pandemic’s impact on junior faculty and parenting faculty, as well as ensuring that the vaccine mandate applied equitably across all three campuses. A member of the UM-Dearborn faculty since 2007, Finlayson served as a representative for the Dearborn campus on the Senate Assembly from 2017-20. She has also contributed to a variety of Senate Assembly committees, including the Academic Affairs Advisory Committee and Committee on Oversight of Administrative Action, among others. Finlayson authored the Resolution on Flint’s Faculty Workload Policy, approved by SACUA and the Senate Assembly, as part of an effort to support Flint faculty in their immediate concerns about the proposed post-tenure review process.
Regents’ Award for Distinguished Public Service
The Regents’ Award for Distinguished Public Service recognizes public service activities that relate closely to teaching and research, and reflect professional and academic expertise. The recipient is Oveta Fuller.
Oveta Fuller
Associate professor of microbiology and immunology, Medical School
Fuller is widely recognized for her scholarship in the fields of virology and public health. Most notably, Fuller has made important contributions related to HIV/AIDS transmission and pathogenesis in communities of color in Africa. She has spent more than a decade conducting global health implementation science research, which seeks to develop and rigorously document effective approaches to sharing biomedical science advances in infectious diseases with the broader community. Fuller helped to develop an innovative, science-based health education model called the Trusted Messenger Science-Based Intervention. This work disseminates the latest information about HIV/AIDS through networks of religious clergy and faith leaders to increase understanding of science relating to the diseases. A member of the U-M faculty since 1988, Fuller also has provided relevant information about SARS-CoV-2 transmission and vaccines to communities of color in the United States. During the 2020 global spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, the Trusted Messengers approach was an effective resource for transferring science-based information to the general community. For this work, Fuller was asked to serve on the FDA Advisory Panel for the evaluation of the COVID-19 Vaccine Candidates for Emergency Use Authorization.
Distinguished Faculty Governance Awards
The Distinguished Faculty Governance Awards were established by the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs in 1986. The awards recognize distinguished service to faculty governance over several years, with an emphasis on universitywide service. The Alumni Association funds the award. The recipients are Neil Marsh and David S. Potter.
Neil Marsh
Professor of chemistry, LSA; and professor of biological chemistry, Medical School
Marsh has made important contributions to faculty governance at U-M, LSA and the Department of Chemistry. At the university level, Marsh chaired the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs from 2018-19, overseeing the work of the Faculty Senate Office and Senate Assembly and the committees reporting to it. At the college level, he served from 2009-12 as an elected member of the LSA Curriculum Committee, which provides faculty oversight of all aspects of the undergraduate curriculum. At the department level, Marsh served multiple terms on the Department of Chemistry Executive Committee. A member of the U-M faculty since 1995, Marsh served on the Academic Affairs Advisory Committee to the Provost from 2009-11. During this time, his work helped to shape policy on a range of important issues, including U-M’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiative and sexual misconduct prevention training for undergraduates. In addition to his normal business as chair, Marsh has made extensive efforts to communicate to the faculty at large the importance of faculty governance through his innovative newsletters and presentations.
David S. Potter
Franics W. Kelsey Collegiate Professor of Greek and Roman History, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and professor of Greek and Latin, LSA
Potter is widely known for his exceptional commitment to central faculty governance at U-M. He began participating in central faculty governance when he was elected to the Senate Assembly during the 1990s. Subsequently, he served on the Academic Affairs Advisory Committee, a Senate Assembly committee that advises the provost and vice president for academic affairs. Potter was elected to the Senate Advisory Committee for University Affairs from 2006-09, including serving as chair in 2008-09. In 2015, he was elected Senate Secretary, a role he held until 2021. Potter’s most important recent contribution to faculty governance was his service as chair of the Senate Assembly Committee to Review the WilmerHale Report, together with his ongoing service as chair of the ad hoc SACUA Motion for Sexual Misconduct Policy Working Group. A member of the U-M faculty since 1986, Potter has worked to change the climate and policies surrounding sexual misconduct at U-M. He also was a member and chair of the Student Relations Advisory Committee as an unwavering advocate for the needs of students. In this role, Potter advanced major initiatives designed to improve the educational experience of all students.
Research Faculty Achievement Awards
The Research Faculty Achievement Awards honor people who hold at least a 60% appointment at the rank of research associate professor, research scientist or associate research scientist. Selection criteria include exceptional scholarly achievements, as evidenced by significant contributions to an academic field of study over time, a specific outstanding discovery or the development of innovative technology or practice. The recipients are Shawn McKee and Jeanne Stuckey.
Shawn McKee
Research scientist; and director, ATLAS Great Lakes Tier-2 Computing Center, LSA
McKee has built a highly distinguished career at U-M as an internationally recognized physicist, innovator and leader in the field of high-energy physics. McKee’s publication history is impressively diverse, including papers in cosmic-ray physics, dark matter, dark energy and particle physics, as well as in innovative technology areas like grid computing, storage technologies and networking. He had a singular role in enabling the Large Hadron Collider research program. McKee joined the ATLAS experiment, an international collaboration of thousands of scientists from hundreds of institutions. The experiment produces vast quantities of data that far exceed previous experiments, requiring novel grid-based computing infrastructure to enable distributed processing and analysis at high-performance computing facilities around the world. A member of the U-M faculty since 1999, McKee holds important leadership roles in high-energy physics networking, including co-chair of the Research Networking Technical Working Group, network project manager for ATLAS and past chair of the Internet2 End-to-End Working Group. In the summer of 2020, he was recruited to serve on Internet2’s Network Architecture, Operations and Policy Advisory group for a two-year term. McKee has served as director of the ATLAS Great Lakes Tier-2 Center, which began operation at U-M in September 2006.
Jeanne Stuckey
Research associate professor in biological chemistry, Medical School; research associate professor and Center for Structural Biology managing director, Life Sciences Institute; and research associate professor in biophysics, LSA
Stuckey is a renowned scientist in the area of structural biology using X-ray crystallography. Stuckey’s research program is devoted to structure-based drug design, most notably for cancer targets. Her investigations solve crystal structures for target proteins and analyze the structures with insight, paving the way for the design and improvement of numerous drugs. Among such drug developments is a potent degrader of STAT3, an intensely pursued protein target for several human cancers. In 2001, Stuckey was appointed co-director of the new Laboratory for the Analysis of Macromolecular Structures. In 2003, she moved the core into the new U-M Life Sciences Institute and has led it to great success as managing director of the Center for Structural Biology. Stuckey and her group perform structural research, which includes the development of cDNA constructs and purification protocols, biophysical characterization of target-ligand complexes, as well as protein crystallography, structural analysis and writing the structural aspects for grants and papers. Her work with high-quality crystal structures led to the development of a banana lectin as an effective antiviral drug. A member of the U-M faculty since 1992, Stuckey leads U-M’s participation in the multi-institutional Life Sciences Collaborative Access Team at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.
University Librarian Achievement Award
The University Librarian Achievement Award recognizes exceptional distinction reflected in active and innovative career achievements in library, archival or curatorial services. The recipient is Judy Smith.
Judy Smith
Informationist, A. Alfred Taubman Health Sciences Library
Smith is a highly respected informationist in the Research and Informatics Unit of the A. Alfred Taubman Health Sciences Library. A valued member of the U-M Library community, Smith has consistently sought new opportunities for engagement and partnership and has raised the profile and prestige of THL. At THL, Smith assumed leadership of a working group to measure the impact of THL’s work on patient and population care. She is also widely recognized for establishing in 2012 a new library space at the North Campus Research Complex called MLibrary@NCRC. Smith’s vision described a new model of library service, grounded in deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities posed by the interdisciplinary and collaborative research enterprise at NCRC. She coordinates all aspects of the operations and actively promotes the new library to NCRC administration, faculty, staff and students. A U-M faculty member since 2010, Smith has served as a formal mentor to library colleagues and students at the School of Information. She currently chairs the Medical Library Association’s Public Health/Health Administration Caucus.
Research Faculty Recognition Award
The Research Faculty Recognition Award honors people who hold at least a 60% appointment at rank of research assistant professor or assistant research scientist. Selection criteria include exceptional scholarly achievements, as evidenced by publications or other scholarly activities in any academic field of study. The recipient is Monique Verhaegen.
Monique Verhaegen
Research associate professor, Department of Dermatology, Medical School
Verhaegen is a world-renowned scientist, educator and mentor recognized for her pioneering research in skin biology and cutaneous oncology. While her ongoing investigations focus on various types of skin cancer, this past year Verhaegen’s work has resulted in advanced understanding of Merkel Cell Carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of skin cancer associated with a Merkel cell polyomavirus. Through her deep commitment and tireless devotion, she developed the first genetically engineered mouse model of MCC, which had not been achieved since discovery of the virus in 2008. Verhaegen’s important work will facilitate pre-clinical studies that may ultimately improve the prognosis for patients with this aggressive malignancy. A member of the U-M faculty since 2013, Verhaegen has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Cancer Cell, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nature Cell Biology, Cancer Research and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Her teaching talent has served to strengthen trainees’ skills and confidence in scientific techniques and methodology, data collection and interpretation, critical thinking, scientific writing and oral presentations. Verhaegen also is an active and exceptionally gifted mentor to trainees at all stages of career development.
