Gov. Rick Snyder recently announced the appointment of Elaine Didier, director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum, to the Library of Michigan Board of Trustees. Snyder said Didier is a talented and experienced literary professional who will be a valuable asset. The 13-member Board of Trustees makes general policy and budgetary recommendations concerning the Library of Michigan to the Michigan Department of Education. Didier at the University of Michigan has served as associate dean of the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, and in other administrative roles.
Medical School faculty member Dr. Huda Akil is the recipient of the Kuwait Prize in Basic Sciences for 2015. The Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences established the prize in 1979 to support scientific researchers in various fields and to encourage Arab scholars and researchers. Recipients, who hail from Kuwait and other Arab countries, receive a cash prize, gold medal, KFAS shield and certificate of recognition. Akil was scheduled to receive the prize from the amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, Dec. 2 in Kuwait City, Kuwait. Akil is co-director and research professor, Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, Distinguished University Professor and Quarton Collegiate Professor of Neurosciences, and professor of psychiatry.
John M. Swales, professor emeritus of linguistics, LSA, and former director of the English Language Institute, was awarded a Ph.D. honoris causa in October by the University of Silesia in Poland.
The Modern Language Association of America has announced it will award the 23rd annual Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies to Silke-Maria Weineck of U-M for her book, “The Tragedy of Fatherhood: King Laius and the Politics of Paternity in the West.” The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding scholarly work written by a member of the association that involves at least two literatures. Weineck is professor of Germanic languages and literatures, and chair of the Department of Comparative Literature, LSA.
