UB to honor faculty, staff excellence

Outstanding achievement by UB faculty and staff will be recognized at the ninth annual Celebration of Faculty and Staff Excellence, to be held on Oct. 3 in the Drama Theatre in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.

The celebration will recognize the work and achievement of faculty and staff in research, teaching and service in 2012.

A separate ceremony recognizing student achievement will be held on April 12.

The ceremony for faculty and staff will begin at 3:30 p.m. with a welcome by President Satish K. Tripathi and remarks by Provost Charles F. Zukoski.

After Zukoski’s remarks, faculty and staff members who have been named SUNY Distinguished Professors, UB Distinguished Professors, recipients of SUNY Chancellor’s Awards and the UB Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award, UB Exceptional Scholars and UB Teaching Innovators will be recognized.

In addition, two faculty members and a staff member will be honored for the unique achievement of completing 50 years of service to UB. They are J. Paul Binette, associate professor, Department Medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (SMBS); George C. Lee, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, and former dean, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS); and James A. Stamos, senior laboratory illustrator and photographer, Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences (CAS).

The ceremony will conclude with creative performances by UB faculty, followed by a reception in the CFA atrium.

Those attending are asked to register online.

The honorees

Recently joining the ranks of SUNY Distinguished Professor, the highest faculty rank in the SUNY system, are:

• Paresh Dandona, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Medicine, SMBS
• Peter A. Rogerson, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Geography, CAS
• Richard Salvi, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, CAS
• Edward H. Steinfeld, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning (SAP)

The Office of the Provost created the UB Distinguished Professors designation to recognize full professors who have achieved true distinction and who are recognized as national and international leaders in their fields. They are:

• Ho-Leung Fung, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
• James Olson, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, SMBS
• Athos Petrou, Department of Physics, CAS
• John Richard, Department of Chemistry, CAS
• Aidong Zhang, Department of Computer Sciences and Engineering, SEAS

The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching recognizes outstanding teaching ability through superb classroom performance. Recipients are:

• Daniel B. Hess, associate professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, SAP
• Charles D. Lindsey, assistant professor, Department of Marketing, School of Management (SOM)
• Carine M. Mardorossian, associate professor, Department of English, CAS
• Jessie Poon, professor, Department of Geography, CAS

The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service honors members of the professional staff whose extraordinary service has significantly enriched the university. Recipients are:

• Hadar Borden, administrative director, Undergraduate Academies
• Nancy C. Recupero, chief financial and information officer, SEAS
• Robert J. Scalise, registrar and assistant director of exhibitions and collections, UB Art Galleries

The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities recognizes outstanding academic and creative achievements across a broad spectrum of scholarly and artistic fields. Recipients are:

• Anthony L. Auerbach, professor, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, SMBS
• Jonathan P. Bird, professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, SEAS

The Chancellor’s Award for Classified Service honors employees in the classified services who have demonstrated exceptional achievement and superior performance of duties. Recipients are:

• Betsy A. Crooks, secretary, Department of Geography, CAS
• Evelyn F. Hufford, library clerk, University Libraries
• Mary C. Schnepf, secretary, Department of Psychology, CAS

The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Librarianship recognizing exceptional skill—both professional and scholarly—in librarianship. Recipients are:

• Joseph L. Gerken, reference librarian, Charles B. Sears Law Library
• Dean Hendrix, coordinator of education services, Health Sciences Library
• Laura L. Taddeo, collections coordinator, Lockwood Library

Mark J. Lema, professor and chair, Department of Anesthesiology, SMBS, is the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service, which acknowledges faculty members who have made sustained and wide-ranging service contributions to a broad array of university constituents.

Peter Biehl, associate professor and chair, Department of Anthropology, CAS, is the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Internationalization, which honors exceptional contributions to fostering international cultural and educational exchange. It helps sponsor outstanding faculty and staff efforts that enable students to gain valuable academic experiences in parts of the world that are not commonly visited or studied.

The Exceptional Scholar Award for Sustained Achievement honors outstanding professional achievement that has been focused on a particular body of work over a number of years. It recognizes an unprecedented accomplishment in a senior scholar’s career, distinguishing a body of work of enduring importance that has gone beyond the norm in a particular field of study. Recipients are:

• Kazimierz Braun, professor, Department of Theatre and Dance. CAS
• Chang Wen Chen, professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SEAS
• Thomas A. Russo, professor, Department of Medicine, SMBS
• Debabrata Talukdar, professor, Department of Marketing, SOM
• Zhen Yan, professor, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, SMBS

The Exceptional Scholar Award for Young Investigators celebrates a recent superior achievement of a scholar in his/her field of study. Such an achievement will have distinguished the recipient as an up-and-coming scholar, as well as earned the individual acclaim for his/her work, which could be a published work or other scholastic or artistic endeavor. Recipients are:

• Heather M. Ochs-Balcom, assistant professor, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Health Professions
• Javid Rzayev, assistant professor, Department of Chemistry, CAS
• Sanjukta D. Smith, assistant professor, Department of Management Science and Systems, SOM
• Wenjun Zheng, assistant professor, Department of Physics, CAS

Sharon J. Hewner, assistant professor, School of Nursing, is the recipient of the UB Teaching Innovation Award, which recognizes faculty members who have contributed significantly to engaging students with new methods and approaches to teaching that have enhanced student-learning outcomes.

The Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award, established by UB’s Graduate School in 2011, annually honors and publicly recognizes exceptional excellence in faculty mentoring of graduate students at UB. Recipients are:

• Paschalis Alexandridis, UB Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, SEAS
• Luis A. Colón, professor, Department of Chemistry, CAS