2007 Recognition Luncheon - Award Recipients
Pictures from Luncheon - NEW!
Faculty Awards
Student Awards
Scholarship/Fellowship Awards
APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY
Robert Gregor, Chairman and Professor of the School of Applied Physiology was elected Fellow in the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education (AAKPE), for his significant contributions in scholarly writing and his leadership to the profession over the at last 10 years.
Chris Hovorka, an Academic Professional in the School of Applied Physiology was recently elected as a Fellow into the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists for his distinction within the Academy and for his service within the academic and public communities.
BIOLOGY
Kirill Lobachev, Assistant Professor, has been awarded the 2007 Sigma Xi Faculty Best Paper Award for his recent article in CELL called “The pattern of gene amplification is determined by the chromosomal location of hairpin-capped breaks.”
Joshua Weitz, Assistant Professor, is a recipient of the prestigious Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Scientific Interface area for his research on Evolutionary Ecology of Bacterial Viruses.
Soojin Yi, Assistant Professor, was selected as a 2007 Sloan Research Fellow. The Sloan Fellowship is an extraordinarily competitive award involving nominations for many of the very best young scientists in the United States and Canada. Soojin has also been awarded by the Institute as one of the 2007 Sigma Xi Best Young Faculty. Both of these awards are well deserved recognition for her exceptional academic accomplishments since arriving at GA Tech.
CHEMISTRY/BIOCHEMISTRY
Lawrence Bottomley, Professor, has been awarded the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award from Georgia Tech. This award signifies the high regard in which he is held within his department and across campus.
Wendy Kelly, Assistant Professor, has received a Dreyfus New Faculty Award for 2006. The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation seeks to support the scholarly activity of new faculty with an award designed to help initiate their independent research programs.
Boris Mizaikoff, Assistant Professor, was elected as a Fellow into the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for building bridges with industry through his academic research in sensors and for facilitating technology transfer between academia and industry.
Facundo Fernandez, Assistant Professor, has been awarded an NSF CAREER award. It will support his research for rapid ways to screen and fingerprint drugs in the open air. This year he is also a recipient of the Blanchard Fellowship.
Mostafa A El-Sayed, the Julius Brown Chair and Regents Professor, and Director of the Laser Dynamics Laboratory has been awarded the Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award.
EARTH AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
Kim Cobb, Assistant Professor, is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award. The award will allow her to investigate the role of tropical Pacific climate variability in shaping global climate patterns of the last millennium.. We also congratulate her for being selected by the Institute for her Education Partnership Faculty Award.
Robert Dickinson, Professor, was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in June 2006 for his important contributions to the cause of science and technology in China.
Athanasios Nenes, Assistant Professor, was selected from the Institute for the Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award. This award signifies his outstanding contributions in education and research within his department and across campus.
Peter Webster, Professor, received the Institute’s Outstanding Faculty Research Author Award recognizing his extensive work on multiple papers.
MATHEMATICS
Matt Baker, Assistant Professor, has been selected as the recipient of the 2007 CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. This Georgia Tech award signifies his outstanding contributions in education and research. His student, George Ander Steele, also received the 2007 Sigma Xi Best Undergraduate Research Award.
Evans Harrell, Professor, was awarded with the distinction of fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his contributions to the study of spectra associated with partial differential equations, particularly gaps and lower bounds for eigenvalues of Schrodinger operators.
Thomas Morley has been awarded the Class of 1934 Outstanding Innovative Use of Education Technology Award from the Institute for his contributions in education, research and because of his outreach to the K-12 community using new classroom technologies.
Hao-Min Zou, Assistant Professor, has received an NSF CAREER Award to research digital image processing, and stochastically perturbed differential equations in physical and engineering systems.
PHYSICS
Michael Schatz, Associate Professor, was invited to participate in the Hesburgh Award Teaching Fellows program. The program is designed for tenured associate professors who want to participate in innovative ways to improve student learning. Teaching Fellows design and implement a project to improve student learning and serve new faculty as an experienced Resource Teacher.
Daniel Goldman, Assistant Professor, is a 2006 recipient of the prestigious Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Scientific Interface area for his research on Dynamic locomotion on challenging substrates.
James Gole, Professor, was a recipient of the Mentor Recognition Award from the University of California, San Diego
Elisa Riedo, Assistant Professor, was just awarded the Innovative Research Award in the College of Sciences. This award was established by an anonymous gift to support an innovative scientific research program by young faculty.
Rick Trebino, Professor, was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society for inventing and developing techniques for measuring ultrashort laser pulses.
PSYCHOLOGY
Phillip L. Ackerman, Professor, and Ruth Kanfer were awarded the 2006 William A. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award by the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) in recognition of the best publication appearing in a refereed journal in the field of I-O Psychology.
Ruth Kanfer, Professor, was selected by the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) to receive the 2007 Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award in recognition of her theoretical and empirical contributions to the science of industrial and organizational psychology.
Chris Hertzog, Professor, has been elected President of Divison 20 (Aging) of American Psychological Association (APA).
Being appointed as the editor of an important journal in the field is a huge mark of distinction in one's career and having editors among the faculty raises the stature of the College’s School of Psychology enormously. Two of our GT professors have been appointed as editors:
Fredda Blanchard-Fields will be the new editor of Psychology and Aging
Wendy Rogers will take over Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied
Wendy Rogers is also the co-recipient of the APA Division 20 Mentor Award. The mentor nomination is from her students which makes it particularly sweet.
Bruce Walker, Assistant Professor, has received an NSF CAREER Award. His research will focus on Fundamental Research, Design, and Evaluation of Auditory and Multimodal Graphs" for both the sighted and visually impaired.
Student Awards From the Schools
APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY
Arick Auyang, PhD student, has been recognized as the Best doctoral student in the School of Applied Physiology. Arick was nominated for his outstanding research in how humans utilize neuromechanical redundancy during locomotor tasks. He wants to develop rehabilitating tools for people with gait disabilities.
Leigh Pipkin has been recognized as the Best second year student in the Master of Science in Prosthetics and Orthotics Program. Leigh has exhibited exemplary research on spinal cordinjuries and as a graduate research assistant. She has also taken on a leadership role within the Women of Prosthetics and Orthotics society and in the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists.
BIOLOGY
Katie Fluke has been recognized as the Outstanding Undergraduate for 2006/2007. She is a hard-working, skillful researcher, an outstanding student, and a well-rounded person. Katie has been accepted into medical school at both Emory and Vanderbilt and the latter has offered a full scholarship.
Buxin Chen has received the Best Graduate Student award. She was also recently awarded the Best Graduate Student Platform Presentation Award at the Southeastern Regional Yeast Meeting at Birmingham, and she was the Suddath Award winner last year, and has several publications.
Karla Vincent has received the 2007 CETL/BP Outstanding TA Award. This award honors Karla as a Georgia Tech teaching assistants for her outstanding service and the positive impact she has made towards the instructional mission of the Institute.
Nabil Wilf has won the Gates-Cambridge scholarship (one of 40 U.S. winners). He will pursue a Ph.D. in Genetics at Cambridge. Nabil graduated from Tech in the Spring 2006 with a degree in Applied Biology and International Affairs; he is currently on a Fulbright scholarship in Kuwait.
CHEMISTRY
Outstanding undergraduate Chemistry and Biochemistry students are Rachel Givens and Yue Liang.
Rachel Givens is currently a senior in our School with an 3.90 overall GPA. She was also the recipient of the 2006 Peter B Sherry Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Scholastic Achievement in Chemistry and the 2007 Spicer Memorial Scholarship in Chemistry.
Yue Liang is also a senior in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech with an overall GPA of 4.00. She is also the recipient of the Merck Undergraduate Research Fellowship this spring semester and the 2007 Spicer Memorial Scholarship in Chemistry.
Catherine Jane Silvestri was awarded the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award from the Undergraduate Research Symposium. This award is richly deserved recognition for her and her mentors.
Outstanding Chemistry graduate students are Prashant Jain, and Clint South.
Prashant Jain has been performing spectroscopic investigations of gold nanoparticles and biomolecules under the supervision of Professor Mostafa El-Sayed with prolific results. Parshant tied for first place this past fall with Clint South in the Chemistry Graduate Student Awards Symposium; he is expected to complete his PhD later this year.
Clint South has been studying self-assembly and synthesis of novel organic supramolecular materials under the supervision of Professor Marcus Weck. Clint has also had number of research publications in top chemistry journals. Clint tied for first place this past fall with Parshant Jain in the Chemistry Graduate Student Awards Symposium, he is expected to complete his PhD later this year.
EARTH AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
Kathleen Salome , undergraduate, is the recipient of the Georgia Tech Education Partnership Student Award. The award is given to a partnership between faculty and students to honor their contributions in education and research.
James Belanger received the EAS Quarter Century Award as our best undergraduate . The award is based on criteria that includes grade point average and the quality of work on a paper or project.
Paula Agudelo, EAS graduate student has received the 2006 PETER B. WAGNER Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Science from the Desert Research Institute. The award is for Women in Atmospheric Sciences and is based on a paper competition and awarded to a woman pursuing a Masters or Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences or a related program at a university in the United States.
Anton Darmenov received the Research Excellence Award as our best graduate student. This award recognizes our most outstanding senior doctoral student on the basis of academic achievement, research, and outreach achievements.
Jean-Francois Koprivnjak, graduate student, received the EAS Best Paper Award. This award is for the best-refereed paper published or accepted for publication.
MATHEMATICS
Christina (Teena) Carroll 2007 CETL/BP Outstanding TA Award. This award honors Christina as a Georgia Tech teaching assistants for her outstanding service and the positive impact she has made towards the instructional mission of the Institute.
Armen Vagharshakyan is selected as the School of Mathematics Best Graduate Student. His selection was made based upon his exemplary performance in his coursework including his performance on the Comprehensive Exams and his quick progress and accomplishments on his research projects.
Brian Koichi Nakamura was awarded the Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Award from the Undergraduate Research Symposium. This award is richly deserved recognition for her and her mentors.
George Ander Steel is selected as the School of Mathematics BEST undergraduate who has a distinguished record of math courses including graduate classes. Ander has also received the 2007 Sigma Xi Best Undergraduate Research Award. (Advisor: Professor Matt Baker)
PHYSICS
Rebecca Suzanne Tucker received the Physics Best Undergraduate Award for her outstanding academic record and research contributions in the School of Physics.
John Eric Widloski congratulations on your receipt of the Outstanding Presentation Award at the recent Undergraduate Research Symposium. This is wonderful recognition for you and your mentors.
Fan Ming is this year's recipient of the Henry Valk Award. The School of Physics recognizes the graduate student who scores the highest on the comprehensive examination with the Henry Valk award.
PSYCHOLOGY
Nancy Bolgetta was selected as the School of Psychology’s Best Undergraduate. Nancy was selected because she has a 3.9 GPA, is active in research for Dr. Philip Ackerman and is President of the Psychology Club.
Richard Heitz and Anne McLaughlin are tied for the School of Psychology’s BEST Graduate Student Award.
Richard Heitz is actively involved in research and won an American Psychological Assoc. Dissertation Research Award, and the School’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. He also organized and ran the successful Cognitive Seminar Series.
Anne McLaughlin is actively involved in research and also won the American Psychological Assoc. Dissertation Research Award. She also won the Outstanding Student Paper Award for the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Aging Technical Group and serves as President for the GT Student Chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
SCHOLARSHIP/FELLOWSHIP AWARDS
APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY
Calli Vance and Andrew Allison, graduate students in Applied Physiology, have received the Craig and Joy Lentzsch Fellowship in Prosthetics and Orthotics.
BIOLOGY
Catherine Park and George Lasker have received the John H Ridley Scholarship. The award was established by Alumnus Dr. John H. Ridley for junior level students in Biology who have demonstrated outstanding scholarship and plan to apply for medical school.
Stefka Gyoneva and Mikhail Akbashev have received the Hershel V. and Virginia C. Clanton Scholarship. This award is given annually to juniors who have demonstrated outstanding scholarship with plans to attend medical school,
Cristina DaSilva and Jason Pedone were awarded the the J. Leland Jackson Bioinformatics Fellowship. Mr. and Mrs. J. Leland Jackson established the fellowship in the School of Biology.
CHEMISTRY
Established by grandson Cherry Emerson, who is on the College of Sciences Advisory Board, the William H. EMERSON Fellowships go to:
Juan Aragon, Ryan Buckley, Erik Dreaden, Tina Dreaden, Kamika Felder, Gelani Griffin, Nicholas Haase, Bassem Hallac, Grant Hendrickson, Lisa Lindhardt, Kathryn Roege, Denis Sokolov, Jennifer Steeb,Tait Takatani, and Kathryn Pigg.
EARTH AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
Alumnus and College of Sciences Advisory Board member Rutt Bridges established the S. Rutt Bridges Research Assistantships for students to do research with faculty in the geosciences. The Award goes to undergraduates:
Alison Graab and Anthony Cummings.
MATHEMATICS
Alumnus John Festa is also a College of Sciences Advisory Board member and established the John R. Festa Fellowship in the School of Mathematics for any graduate who exhibits strong academic and leadership skills.
David Jimenez is this year’s recipient of the John R. Festa Fellowships.
Alumnus Robert Price is also a College of Sciences Advisory Board member and established the Robert Price Fellowship for students to supplement their financial support while they make progress toward a graduate degree.
Yun Gong and Noah Streib are this year’s recipients of the Robert Price Fellowship
PHYSICS
Alumnus Gilbert Amelio established the Gilbert F. Amelio Fellowship in the School of Physics to acknowledge outstanding research.
Menderes Iskin a student of Carlos Sa de Melo and a recipient of the Gilbert F. Amelio Fellowship.
Joseph Daniel Holt and Jonathon Daniel Diaz are award winners of the Hitohiro Fukuyo Scholarship in the School of Physics. The award was established in honor of Dr. Joseph E. Rhodes to honor a friendship with Dr. Hitohiro Fukuyo.
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