Frank Ascione, director of the Michigan Center for Interprofessional Education and professor of pharmacy, recently received the inaugural Interprofessional Educator and Mentor Award at the international Collaborating Across Borders conference in Indianapolis. The American Interprofessional Health Collaborative, a conference co-sponsor, oversees the award. Co-nominator Laura Smith, associate professor at UM-Flint College of Health Sciences, said of Ascione: “A person with his combination of vision, intellect, interpersonal communication, collaborative approach, integrity and passion for excellence will always accept a challenge and continue with diligence, creating greatness in the organizations in which he serves.”
Frank Turchan, executive chef for MDining, received the Michigan Chefs de Cuisine Association’s Chef Professionalism Award for 2019 at the association’s 44th annual Chef of the Year Awards Gala. The MCCA, a prestigious chapter of the American Culinary Federation, gives the award annually to a chef who “exemplifies the highest standard of professionalism through certification, education and community involvement.” As executive chef for MDining, Turchan oversees 20 chefs engaged in culinary operations for all campus dining halls, cafés, markets and catered events. He is an advocate for sustainable food sourcing, and his dedication to local farmers has led to an expansion in U-M’s local food-buying strategies. Turchan graduated from the Culinary Institute of America.
Celina G. Kleer, Harold A. Oberman Collegiate Professor and professor of pathology, Medical School, and member of the Rogel Cancer Center, will be honored next month with the 2019 Outstanding Investigator Award from the American Association for Cancer Research. The award is presented to individuals age 50 or younger whose novel and significant work has had or may have a far-reaching impact on the etiology, detection, diagnosis, treatment or prevention of breast cancer. Kleer discovered a new mechanism by which a subset of aggressive breast cancer cells metastasizes, with implications on the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. She will receive the award and deliver a lecture at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on Dec. 13.
Yan Chen, Daniel Kahneman Collegiate Professor of Information and professor of information in the School of Information, and research professor with the Institute for Social Research, is the recipient of the 2019 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award. The award is given annually by the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession to recognize and honor people who have furthered the status of women in the economics profession. Chen is a distinguished scholar and award-winning educator. She participated in the first CSWEP-sponsored mentoring program in 1998, and served as mentor for a cohort of women through CSWEP’s CeMENT workshop in 2006. As president of the Economic Science Association from 2015-17, Chen helped make the ESA more supportive of its many women members. At the end of her term as president, the ESA asked Chen to stay on the executive committee as the director of mentoring. Chen is also a distinguished visiting professor at the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University in China, where she is director of the Economics Science and Policy Experimental Lab.
Joan Nassauer, professor of landscape architecture in the School for Environment and Sustainability, has earned a spot on DesignIntelligence’s Landscape Architecture — Most Admired Educators list. DesignIntelligence called Nassauer a “visionary leader in ecological design” and said she empowers women students. DesignIntelligence is an independent company dedicated to the business success of firms and organizations in architecture, engineering, construction and design. Every year, it honors excellence in architecture and design education, and education administration, by naming outstanding professionals in those fields. The most admired educators are selected by DesignIntelligence staff with input from thousands of design professionals, academic department heads and students.
Alaa Algargoosh, a Ph.D. candidate in architecture at the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, has been named one of the MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 MENA for 2019. The award recognizes top innovators who will transform the future of technology. Algargoosh was honored for her work in developing acoustic technologies that enhance human well-being and daily experience. Her previous work included applying cymatic shapes in the diffuser that she developed called “The Cymatic Diffusers,” which resulted in the reduction of sound defects such as echoes in a room. She is currently focused on studying the impact of the acoustic environment on well-being by applying cutting-edge 3-D sound recording technology and modeling in virtual reality.
— Compiled by Ann Zaniewski, The University Record
