Professor John
Dickey (astronomy) has received the 2004 Charles
E. Bowers Faculty Teaching Award, which recognizes
exceptional commitment to teaching.
The college has honored Distinguished McKnight University
Professor Timothy
Lodge (chemistry) and Professor Marvin
Marshak (physics) with an IT Distinguished Professorship
in recognition of their contributions to teaching and
scholarly research as well as their genuine commitment
to IT.
Jorge
Manuel Dengo-Obregon (Civil ’43), former vice
president of Costa Rica, has received an Honorary Doctor
of Laws degree from the University in recognition of five
decades of leadership in public works and economic development
in Costa Rica and Latin America.
Theofanis
Theofanous (ChemE Ph.D.’69) has received
the University's most prestigious alumni honor, the
Outstanding Achievement Award. He is director of
the Center for Risk Studies and Safety, Department
of Chemical Engineering, University of California-Santa
Barbara, where he holds a joint appointment in the
Department of Mechanical and Environmental Engineering.
IT is pleased to announce the recipients of this year's
Taylor Awards:
Assistant Professor Victor
Barocas (biomedical engineering), Taylor Career
Development Award
Professors John
Bischof (mechanical engineering) and Georgios
Giannakis (electrical and computer engineering),
George W. Taylor Award for Distinguished Research
Associate
Professor Mark
Distefano (chemistry), George W. Taylor/ITAS
Award for Distinguished Teaching
Professor Lawrence
Rudnick (astronomy), George W. Taylor
Award for Distinguished Service
A crowd of 550 executives, alumni, faculty, and friends
gathered April 14 at the Hilton Minneapolis for the
2004 Science & Technology Banquet, IT's premier
alumni event. The banquet raised $20,000 for the ITAS
Scholarship Fund. Charles McQueary, Under Secretary
for Science and Technology, U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, headlined the event, which also featured remarks
by University president Robert Bruininks and IT dean
H. Ted Davis.
Beyer succeeds Kosek as
IT alumni relations director
Kris Kosek, director of alumni relations, has left IT
to become director of alumni services and outreach for
the Carlson School of Management. She assumed her new
responsibilities April 19.
During Kosek's six years with IT, the IT Alumni Society
increased its ranks to nearly 7,000 members worldwide
and received numerous UMAA awards for its programs and
sustained excellence.
"I am honored to have worked with such devoted
volunteers and talented colleagues in support of IT,"
says Kosek. "I have no doubt that ITAS will continue
to excel and set trends for other alumni societies."
Sara Beyer, IT's new director of alumni relations,
and her assistant, Liz Stadther, will work closely with
Kosek to ensure a smooth transition for alumni programs.
"We're very grateful to Kris for her hard work
and dedication," says IT dean H. Ted Davis. "She's
done a outstanding job helping our alumni reconnect
to IT and fostering our relationship to the greater
community."
Kinsey named interim IT development
director
Tom Kinsey will serve as IT's interim development
director during the search for a permanent successor
to Phil Oswald, who left the University in March to
become associate vice chancellor
for development at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Kinsey has
served as a development officer at the University since
1995. He joined the IT development team in
September 2001.
Honors
Travis Bogan (Civil M.S. ’03) and civil engineering
graduate student Matthew Carper (Aero M.S. ’01)
will receive the 2004 Alvin
G. Anderson Award at a special colloquium April
21 at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL).
The annual
award honors University graduate students who are pursuing
studies in hydraulic engineering and/or water resources,
with a preference given to students in sediment transport.
Bogan, whose advisor was Professor Heinz Stefan,
worked
at SAFL for five years, beginning as an undergraduate.
Carper, who joined SAFL in 2001, is working on
his Ph.D.
under the guidance of McKnight Land-Grant Professor
Fernando Porté-Agel.
Doctoral students Ted Brekken (electrical engineering)
and Fawna Korhonen (geology) have received Fulbright
Scholarships for the 2004-05 academic year. Brekken
is the winner of the Graduate School's Fulbright Scholarship
Exchange Program with the Norwegian University of Science
and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. He will study Norway's
wind farms to gain practical knowledge of wind technology.
Korhonen will conduct research in the Varpaisjärvi
region of central Finland, where she will study magnetic
materials and their origins. She will also collaborate
with geologists at the Geological Survey of Finland.
Assistant Professor Victor
Barocas has received a 3M Nontenured Faculty
Award. The award comes with an unrestricted gift
of $15,000 to use in advancing his work in computational
biomechanics and biotransport.
Distinguished McKnight University Professor Keshab
Parhi (electrical and computer engineering) has
received the 2004 Frederick
Emmons Terman Award from the American Society
of Engineering Education. The award honors young
electrical engineering educators with outstanding
achievements in teaching, research, guidance of students,
and related activities. Recipients must also be the
principal author of an electrical engineering textbook
judged to be an original contribution to the field.
Parhi's book is VLSI Digital Signal Processing
Systems.
In memoriam
World-renowned mathematician Boris
Levitan, former adjunct professor at the University,
died April 4 in Minneapolis. He was 89.
Born in southern Ukraine, Levin was a professor and
researcher at Moscow State University for many years.
In 1961 he received the former Soviet Union's highest
civilian honor, the Lenin Prize, for his work on the
inverse scattering problem. He came to the U.S. in 1992
and at age 77 joined the University's mathematics department
as an adjunct professor.
Levitan's survivors include his stepson, Professor
Leonid Glazman, McKnight Presidential Chair of Theoretical
Condensed Matter Physics.
Events
SAFL colloquium
April 21: Professor Chiang
Mei, Donald and Martha Harleman Professor of Civil
and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, will deliver the keynote
address at a colloquium sponsored by the St. Anthony
Falls Laboratory. The event follows the presentation
of the 2004 Alvin G. Anderson Award to graduate students
Travis Bogan and Matthew Carper, who each will present
a 10-minute talk. 3:30 p.m., auditorium, St.
Anthony Falls Laboratory.
Distinguished Teaching Awards ceremony
April 26: All members of the University
community are invited to a special ceremony and reception
to honor 13 faculty who have received the 2003-2004
Distinguished
Teaching Awards. These outstanding teachers will
be inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers
for their contributions to undergraduate, graduate,
and professional education. Among those being honored
is Associate Professor Mats
Heimdahl (computer science and engineering,) who
received the Award for Outstanding Contributions to
Graduate and Professional Education. For more information
call 612-625-9180 or email gaude004@umn.edu.
UMAA 100th Anniversary Gala Finale
and Celebration
May 6: Internationally acclaimed contemporary
musician Yanni
(Psychology ’76) will receive an honorary Doctor
of Humane Letters at the University of Minnesota Alumni
Association's 100th anniversary gala finale and annual
celebration, "Changing
the World One Graduate at at Time." The gala
event includes a reception and dinner on Northrop Mall
followed by a program in Northrop Auditorium. The program
also features a keynote address and multimedia presentation
by Yanni and musical performances by University students.
5:30 p.m. reception, 6:30 p.m. dinner, 8 p.m. program.
Group sales for parties of 10 or more are on sale now
and will receive a $50 discount if ordered by April
2. For information on group sales call 612-625-8878.
Tickets go on sale to the general public March 22. Order
online or call 612-624-2345.
IT Commencement
May 7: The IT community is invited
to celebrate commencement with our new graduates, their
families, and friends. For information call 612-624-5091.
7:00 p.m., Northrop Auditorium.
