Brandon Pitts
Aurora Kamimura
Ishita Das
Four doctoral students were recently inducted into the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society at the Rackham Graduate School to recognize their outstanding scholarly achievement and promote diversity and excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate. They are Alaina M. Neal, educational foundations and policy; Brandon Pitts, industrial and operations engineering; Aurora Kamimura, higher education; and Ishita Das, cellular and molecular biology. Receiving an honorary membership in the society was Janet A. Weiss, Rackham Graduate School dean and vice provost for academic affairs. Her example of leadership in promoting diversity initiatives in graduate education has been transformational at Rackham.
Two doctoral candidates at U-M are among those selected as 2015 Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellows. They are Stuart Strange, Department of Anthropology, and Paul Love, Department of Near Eastern Studies. The newly recognized fellows are writing dissertations on topics involving religious and ethical values. Each will receive a 12-month award of $25,000 to support the final year of dissertation work. The program is selective, with fewer than 5 percent of applicants from across the country awarded fellowships in 2015.
John Tropman, professor of social work at the School of Social Work, and Amanda Tillotson, doctoral student in social work and political science, are the recipients of the Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance Mary Parker Follette Award. It is for Early Responders, Late Responders, and Non-Responders: The Principal-Agent Problem in Board Oversight of Nonprofit CEOs. The award recognizes outstanding theory-informed research in community benefit organizations. It will be presented at the Network for Social Work Management Conference at Howard University.
Larry Gruppen, professor of learning health sciences, Medical School, has been honored by the National Board of Medical Examiners with the 2015 John P. Hubbard Award. It recognizes individuals for excellence in advancing the field of evaluation in medicine. Gruppen’s research scholarship was described as being of consistent high quality, longevity, breadth and diversity, and that it has illuminated the development and evaluation of expertise in medicine for decades.
Peter Sparling, Rudolf Arnheim Distinguished University Professor of Dance, was invited to attend the Cannes Film Festival in May in Cannes, France. His screendance “The Snowy Owl” was accepted into Short Film Corner, a global competition for independent filmmakers. Created in 2012, “The Snowy Owl” is a danced setting of a surreal poem by former U-M MFA creative writing student Benjamin Landry, from a set of poems inspired by images of famous dancers on film.
Melanie Sanford has been named a finalist for the 2015 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. She is one of the top 11 candidates in the chemistry category. The annual awards administered by the New York Academy of Sciences recognize and support America’s top young scientific innovators in life sciences, physical sciences and engineering, and chemistry. The three national laureates will be announced in June. Each will receive an unrestricted cash prize of $250,000, the largest prize of its kind for early-career scientists. She is Moses Gomberg Collegiate Professor of Chemistry, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and professor of chemistry, LSA.
Patricia Coleman-Burns has been honored with the U-M Center for Educational Outreach Partner Appreciation Award. Coleman-Burns was chosen for her ongoing outreach work and her partnership across the university and in the community. She was praised for participating in CEO programs such as Wolverine Express and the University Outreach Council, and her position as an advocate of outreach programs such as the GENESIS Project. She is assistant professor and special adviser to the dean on multicultural affairs, School of Nursing, and adjunct assistant professor of Afroamerican and African studies, LSA.
Dr. Cristiane Squarize at the School of Dentistry is one of 12 individuals nationwide, and among the first two dentists, to receive an award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program. Squarize is an assistant professor in the Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine. The award is designed to increase the number of faculty from diverse backgrounds who have the potential to reach positions of influence in academic medicine or dentistry, and who will serve as role models and mentors to students with similar backgrounds. She will receive a $420,000 grant to support research activities, career advancement and leadership development.
The clinical research team of Dr. Rodica Pop-Busui has been recognized for excellence in study recruitment for the Preventing Early Renal Function Loss in Type 1 Diabetes Trial by the PERL Executive Committee and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive & Kidney Diseases. The PERL Trial is funded by the NIDDK at the National Institutes of Health. The U-M clinical research team and its affiliate sub site at Henry Ford Health System was acknowledged for recruiting the largest number of subjects in the study among all the research sites, as well as for exceeding the study quota by more than double during the first four months of this year. Pop-Busui, associate professor of internal medicine in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology & Diabetes and co-director of the Michigan Peripheral Neuropathy Center, is principal investigator for the study at U-M.
Lu Li, assistant professor of physics, is one of 36 college and university faculty who have been selected to receive the 2015 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Prize. Lu won for his correlated topological materials proposal. He aims to acquire fundamental understanding of the physical phenomena arising from interactions of many electrons in topological materials. He will receive a grant with an annual monetary award of $170,000 over a three-year period for his research efforts. They hold promise in advancing naval technology.
Khaled Mattawa’s examination of the work of Mahmoud Darwish, arguably Palestine’s most famous poet, has been selected as a finalist for the major poetry criticism prize the Pegasus Award for Criticism. “Mahmoud Darwish: The Poet’s Art and His Nation” by Mattawa, Syracuse University Press, examines Darwish’s struggle to be both a spokesman for his people and a private lyrical poet. His insights into Arabic poetry and Palestinian history provide context for understanding Darwish’s work and its importance. Mattawa is an associate professor of English language and literature, LSA.
