Faculty honors

Sheng Zhong, an assistant professor in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, has been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship, which is given to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as the next generation of scientific leaders. Zhong researches causal relationships between gene regulation, cell differentiation, and cancer. His lab pioneered in systems biology modeling, stem-cell engineering, and single-cell technologies. Zhong is an associate professor of bioengineering, biophysics, and neuroscience. He is also affiliated with the Departments of Computer Science, Statistics, and Cell and Developmental Biology.

Vera Hur, assistant professor of mathematics, has been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship, which is given to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as the next generation of scientific leaders. Hur’s research focuses on the analysis of nonlinear partial differential equations which arises in physical contexts. In particular, she is interested in mathematical aspects of surface water waves and related moving boundary problems.

Clare Crowston, professor of history, has been awarded an ACLS Collaborative Research Fellowship to support her project, Learning How: Apprenticeship in France, 1675-1830, for 24 months beginning July 2012.

Craig Koslofsky, professor of history, was named the winner of this year’s Longman-History Today Book of the Year Award for his book Evening’s Empire: A History of the Night in Early Modern Europe. The award goes to the best first or second history book, as determined by a panel of judges. The judges described the book as “methodologically bold and brilliantly original,” according to History Today.

Kara D. Federmeier, professor of psychology, has been elected a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Fellow status is awarded to APS members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application.

John E. Hummel, professor of psychology, has been elected a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Fellow status is awarded to APS members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application.

Daniel J. Simons, professor of psychology, has been elected a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Fellow status is awarded to APS members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application.

Wilfred van der Donk, the Richard E. Heckert Endowed Chair in Chemistry, has been elected a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Van der Donk was recognized for pioneering contributions to the discovery of natural products and the elaboration of their biosynthesis.

M. Christina White, professor of chemistry, has been elected a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. White was honored for discoveries of novel, highly useful catalytic methods for oxidative functionalization of aliphatic and allylic C-H bonds and delineation of predictable rules for reaction selectivities.

James Whitfield, professor of entomology, has been elected a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Whitfield was chosen for groundbreaking contributions toward understanding the evolution, diversification, and classification of the hyperdiverse parasitic Hymenoptera and their mutualistic polydnaviruses.

Ronald P. Toby, professor of East Asian languages and cultures and history, received the 2011 National Institutes for the Humanities Prize in Japanese Studies for outstanding contributions to Japanese studies by a foreign scholar. Toby is recognized for his research in the history of early modern Japanese foreign relations and for his accomplishments in the advancement and promotion of Japanese studies abroad.

Chris Fennell, associate professor of anthropology, has been elected to the board of directors of the Society for Historical Archaeology for a term of three years staring January 2012. He is also the founding editor of the new peer-review Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage.

Ellen Moodie, professor of anthropology, received the Ruth Benedict Global Citizenship Award for the Center for a Public Anthropology. This award recognizes Moodie’s participation in the center's Community Action Online Project as well as other public outreach activities.

Alex Yong, assistant professor of mathematics, has won (with his co-author Hugh Thomas) the Canadian Math Society’s G. de B. Robinson award for the best paper in the Canadian Mathematical Bulletin in 2009 and 2010. Their paper was titled “Multiplicity-Free Schubert Calculus.”

Marianne Kalinke, emeritus professor of Germanic languages and literatures, will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Iceland in December for her productive research and publications on medieval Icelandic literature, which has furthered and stimulated research on older Icelandic literature, and for having supported international relations at the University of Iceland in the field of medieval studies.

Leslie Reagan, professor of history, has won the 2011 Joan Kelly Prize for her book, Dangerous Pregnancies: Mothers, Disabilities, and Abortion in Modern America (University of California Press, 2010). Established in 1984, this prize is awarded annually for the book in women’s history and/or feminist theory that best reflects the high intellectual and scholarly ideals exemplified by the life and work of Joan Kelly (1928-82).

Charles Schroeder, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has been named a Packard Fellow in science and engineering for his work with fluorescent probes for ultra-high-resolution imaging. The fellowship from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation includes an unrestricted five-year, $875,000 award to support creative research. Schroeder’s award will fund the use of the new probes to study retroviruses and bacterial gene expression.

Steven C. Huber, professor of plant biology, was elected the president of the American Society of Plant Biologists for 2012. Huber’s research focuses on the role of protein phosphorylation in enzyme regulation.

Hugh M. Robertson, professor of entomology, was honored with a Certificate of Distinction by the Council of the International Congress of Entomology for his contributions to the field. Robertson is known for his research on insect genetics and for his role in insect genome projects.

Jonathan V. Sweedler, professor of chemistry, was appointed the editor-in-chief of Analytical Chemistry, a journal published by the American Chemical Society.

James B. Whitfield, professor of entomology, was honored with the Thomas Say Award from the Entomological Foundation. This award recognizes significant and outstanding work in the fields of insect systematics, morphology, or evolution. Whitfield’s research focuses on the systematics and ecology of parasitoid wasps.

David Irwin, professor of psychology, has won a 2011 Best Article Award from the Psychonomic Society. His article, “Where Does Attention Go When You Blink?” was published in Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, the largest of the psychonomic journals.

Youness Lamzouri, professor of mathematics, was honored with the 2011 Dissertation Prize by the Canadian Mathematical Society. This annual award recognizes extraordinary performance by a doctoral student. Lamzouri will accept this award at the society’s winter meeting held in Toronto.

Paul J. Kenis, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is one of six faculty members recognized as University Scholars. An expert in the field of microfluidics, his research program is focused on the development of novel microfluidic tools for applications in energy and health.

Benjamin J. McCall, professor of chemistry, is one of six faculty members recognized as University Scholars. McCall is active in a rapidly growing research area, astrochemistry. His research at the interface of astronomy and chemistry includes three major areas: observational molecular astronomy, chemistry of fundamental reactive ion species, and laboratory detection of molecules important in interstellar chemistry.

James M. Slauch, professor of microbiology, is one of six faculty members recognized as University Scholars. Slauch is internationally recognized for his work on Salmonella virulence, a major cause of food-borne illness. His research focuses on the interplay between the human host and bacterium in disease.

Lillian Hoddeson, professor emeritus of history, is the winner of the 2012 Abraham Pais Prize for the History of Physics. This prize is awarded by the American Physical Society for outstanding scholarly achievements in the history of physics. She is being honored for her contributions to writing the history of 20th-century physics and her studies of American research laboratories, specifically Bell Labs, Los Alamos, and Fermilab, and her biography of John Bardeen. Hoddeson will be honored and will give a lecture at the April 2012 annual meeting of the society in Atlanta.

Diane Koenker, professor of history, had been elected vice president/president elect of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

Douglas A. Mitchell, professor of chemistry, has been named a recipient of the 2011 National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award. This award recognizes bold ideas from some of the nation's most promising new scientists. The $1.5 million award, given over a period of five years, supports young investigators who have proposed exceptionally creative research ideas that have the potential to produce important medical advances. Mitchell uses chemical methods to study the mechanisms that contribute to bacterial virulence and antibiotic resistance.

Harry C. Triandis, professor emeritus of psychology, won a Career Contribution Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. This award is given to a scholar who has made major theoretical and/or empirical contributions to social psychology and/or personality psychology or to bridging these two areas.

Jonathan Sweedler, professor of chemistry, was elected a fellow of the American Chemical Society. This award is given for outstanding accomplishments in chemistry and contributions to the American Chemical Society. Sweedler, who holds the James R. Eiszner Family Chair in Chemistry, is a bioanalytical chemist, with a focus on developing new methods to study the distribution and dynamic release of neurotransmitters and neuropeptides from individual neurons.

James Morrissey, professor of biochemistry, was recently awarded the Biennial Investigator Recognition Award for Contributions to Haemostasis by the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis. Morrissey was recognized for his distinguished record as a teacher and researcher.

Ed Seebauer, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, was recently elected a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the organization’s highest grade of membership.

Thom Dunning, professor of chemistry, was elected a fellow of the American Chemical Society. This award is given for outstanding accomplishments in chemistry and contributions to the American Chemical Society. Dunning directs the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and holds the Distinguished Chair for Research Excellence in Chemistry. His research focuses on the development of techniques for the accurate solution of the electronic Schrödinger equation and on new computational approaches to enhance scientists’ understanding of, and ability to predict, the structure, energetics, and reactivity of molecules.

Catherine Murphy, the Peter C. and Gretchen Miller Markunas Professor of Chemistry, was elected a fellow of the American Chemical Society. This award is given for outstanding accomplishments in chemistry and contributions to the American Chemical Society. Murphy’s research focuses on the overlapping fields of materials chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biophysics and nanotechnology.

Ralph Nuzzo, the G.L. Clark Professor of Chemistry, was elected a fellow of the American Chemical Society. This award is given for outstanding accomplishments in chemistry and contributions to the American Chemical Society. Nuzzo’s investigates the chemistry of materials, with a focus on methods to fabricate high-performance devices that integrate materials in new ways.

F.K. Lehman (Chit Hlaing), professor emeritus of anthropology, was honored with his biography published in the Journal of Burma Studies. The article highlights his career and his contributions to the University over the course of 50 years.

Brian C. Freeman, professor of cell and developmental biology and in the Institute for Genomic Biology, has been selected to receive the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. This award is given to scientists and scholars for their outstanding research record. Winners have the opportunity to spend up to one year cooperating on a long-term research institution in Germany. Freeman will work alongside colleagues from the Technical University of Munich.

Kristin L. Hoganson, professor of history and gender and women’s studies, was recently honored with a 2011 fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies. Hoganson’s project is titled “Prairie Routes: Making a Global Heartland.”

Dan Shao, professor of East Asian languages and cultures, was recently honored with an American Research in the Humanities in China program award. Shao was awarded this for her project "Chinese by Definition: Bloodline, Nationality Law, and State Succession, 1909-1997.

John A. Rogers, professor of chemistry, materials science and engineering, mechanical science and engineering, bioengineering, and electrical and computer engineering, won the 2011 Lemelson-MIT Prize. The annual award recognizes outstanding innovation and creativity. Rogers will accept the $500,000 prize and present his accomplishments at a ceremony during the Lemelson-MIT program’s annual EurekaFest at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June. Rogers is renowned for his recent pioneering work with semiconductor materials and flexible, stretchable electronics.

James M. Lisy, professor of chemistry, will receive a Humboldt Research Award honoring a lifetime of research achievements. Recipients are each awarded a prize of more than $86,000 and extended an invitation to pursue research of their choice with colleagues in Germany. Lisy will work at Ruhr University in collaboration with professor Martina Havenith-Newen. Lisy uses molecular beam and laser spectroscopy techniques to study properties of molecular and ionic clusters. He is internationally recognized for his research on ion solvation.

So Hirata, professor of chemistry, has been named a Scialog Fellow by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. His three-year $100,000 grant is among seven awarded to early-career scientists for research in solar energy conversion. Hirata’s research focuses on organic photovoltaic materials.

Yasemin Yildiz, professor of Germanic languages and literatures, received a Collaborative Research Fellowship for 2011-2012 from the American Council of Learned Societies for the project “Citizens of Memory: Muslim Immigrants and Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Germany.” The project, which will result in a book, will be conducted jointly with professor of English Michael Rothberg and an independent scholar in Berlin.

Lilya Kaganovsky, professor of Slavic languages and literatures, comparative literature, and media and cinema studies, has been awarded an International and Area Studies Fellowship by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council, and the National Endowment for Humanities. Her award is for her second book project, The Voice of Technology: Soviet Cinema’s Transition to Sound, 1928-1935.

James Slauch, professor of microbiology, was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Slauch studies Salmonella bacteria, particularly the molecular mechanisms that cause Salmonella infections and allow the bacteria to elude the immune system.

Wilfred van der Donk, the Richard E. Heckert Endowed Chair in Chemistry, was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. His research focuses on harnessing enzyme functions for the discovery and design of new anti-inflammatory agents and antibiotics.

Luisa-Elena Delgado, associate professor of Spanish, received an honorable mention at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities' annual award reception for her article "The Sound and the Red Fury: The Sticking Points of Spanish Nationalism," published in the Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies (2010).

Brian C. Freeman, professor of cell and developmental biology, has been awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Recipients are honored for their outstanding research record and invited to spend up to one year cooperating on a long-term research project with colleagues at a research institution in Germany.

Eli Michael Sarnat, postdoctoral research associate in the department of entomology, has been named a Rubenstein Fellowship by Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). The program serves early-career scientists who wish to use EOL as a platform for outreach and encouraging other young scientists to do the same. EOL is a global partnership between the scientific community and the general public with its goal to make knowledge about the world’s organisms freely available to anyone through its online repository.