UB to recognize faculty, staff excellence

Notable UB faculty and staff will take center stage on Nov. 1 at the 15th annual Celebration of Faculty and Staff Excellence.

The celebration, which will take place in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus, will recognize the work and achievement of faculty and staff in research, teaching and service in 2018.

A separate ceremony recognizing student achievement will be held in the spring.

The ceremony for faculty and staff will begin 3:30 p.m. with a welcome from President Satish K. Tripathi and remarks by Charles F. Zukoski, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. The event also will feature a viewing of an excerpt from “See It Through Buffalo,” a documentary short on exhibit in Venice, Italy, as part of the Venice Architecture Biennale. It was directed by UB architecture professors Gregory Delaney and Korydon Smith, and produced by Paget Films in association with faculty and students from the School of Architecture and Planning.

The highlight of the event will be the recognition of faculty and staff members who received distinguished honors and awards during 2018. Honorees include individuals who have been named SUNY Distinguished Professors, UB Distinguished Professors, UB Exceptional Scholars and UB Teaching Innovators, as well as recipients of the SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence.

Also being honored are the recipients of two UB mentoring awards: the UB Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award and the UB President Emeritus and the Mrs. Meyerson Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring.

In addition, 26 faculty members will be honored for the exceptional milestone of completing 50 years of service to UB.

A reception will immediately follow the ceremony in the Slee lobby.

Those attending are asked to register online by Oct. 24.

The honorees

Twenty six faculty and staff members recently completed 50 years of service to UB. They are:

• Wayne K. Anderson, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
• Winston W. Chang, Department of Economics.
• Ching Chou, Department of Mathematics.
• Thomas W. Cusick, Department of Mathematics.
• Michael P. Farrell, Department of Sociology.
• Robert J. Genco, Department of Oral Biology.
• Rossman F. Giese, Jr., Department of Geology.
• Clyde F. Herreid, Department of Biological Sciences.
• Perry M. Hogan, Department of Physiology and Biophysics.
• James M. Holmes, Department of Economics.
• Bruce Jackson, Department of English.
• Leonard A. Katz, Department of Medicine.
• James M. Lawler, Department of Philosophy.
• Murray Levine, Department of Psychology.
• Emanuele G. Licastro, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
• Stephen G. Manes, Department of Music.
• James E. McConnell, Department of Geography.
• Margaret A. Piech, Department of Mathematics.
• Martin E. Plaut, Department of Medicine.
• Joel O. Raynor, Department of Psychology.
• Nagesh S. Revankar, Department of Economics.
• Vijay C. Swamy, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.
• Myron A. (Mick) Thompson, The Graduate School.
• Shari A. Wilson, Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
• Jerrold C. Winter, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.
• Darold C. Wobschall, Department of Electrical Engineering.

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

• Stelios Andreadis, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
• Christopher S. Cohan, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences.
• Steven J. Fliesler, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology.
• Andrew S. Whittaker, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering.
• Zhen Yan, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Physiology and Biophysics.
• Ezra B.W. Zubrow, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology.

The Office of Provost created the UB Distinguished Professor designation to recognize full professors who have achieved true distinction and are recognized as national and international leaders in their fields. This year’s recipient is Hui Meng, professor in UB’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

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. This year’s recipients are:

• Jochen Autschbach, Department of Chemistry.
• Laurie K. Read, Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
• Kui Ren, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
• Gil I. Wolfe, Department of Neurology.

The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching recognizes professors who have demonstrated outstanding teaching ability. Recipients are Gail Radford, professor in the Department of History and David F. Watson, professor in the Department of Chemistry.

The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service honors members of the professional staff whose extraordinary service contributions have significantly enriched the university. This year’s recipients are Rebecca Brierley, assistant dean, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Elizabeth Lidano, director, Student Conduct and Advocacy.

The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Classified Service honors employees in the classified services who have demonstrated exceptional achievement and superb performance of duties. The recipient being honored is Terri Nusstein, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The UB President Emeritus and Mrs. Meyerson Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring, formerly the UB Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity, recognizes the outstanding faculty mentorship that currently exists at UB and seeks to encourage further faculty commitment to and participation in the undergraduate research and creative experience. Recipients are:

• Michael R. Detty, Department of Chemistry.
• Johannes Hachmann, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
• Larry W. Hawk, Department of Psychology.

The UB Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award recognizes exceptional excellence in faculty mentoring of graduate students at UB. Recipients are Paul D. Gollnick, professor, Department of Biological Sciences, and Sargur N. Srihari, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

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:

• David Castillo, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.
• Sherry Chemler, Department of Chemistry.
• Matthew S. Dryer, Department of Linguistics.
• Xiufeng Liu, Department of Learning and Instruction.
• Amanda B. Nickerson, Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology.
• Abani K. Patra, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
• Robert Zivadinov, Department of Neurology.

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 individual acclaim for his/her work, which could be a published work or other scholastic or artistic endeavor. Recipients are:

• Timothy R. Cook, Department of Chemistry.
• Seong Won Han, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy.
• Josep M. Jornet, Department of Electrical Engineering.
• Oliver Kennedy, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
• Pinaki Sarder, Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences.
• Z. Jack Tseng, Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences.
• Ciaran Williams, Department of Physics.
• Lukasz Ziarek, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

The UB Teaching Innovation Award recognizes faculty members who have contributed significantly to engaging students with new methods and approaches to teaching that have enhanced student-learning outcomes. Recipients are:

• Nicole P. Albanese, Department of Pharmacy Practice.
• Dimitrios Koutsonikolas, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
• Amy VanScoy, Department of Library and Information Studies.

The UB Distinguished Postdoc Mentor Award is presented on an annual basis to faculty members who excel in the mentoring of postdoctoral scholars. “A good mentor not only teaches their mentees but also serves as an advocate, adviser and positive role model during the period of direct training and, most often, in the following years,” according to the award criteria. The recipient is Peter F. Biehl, professor, Department of Anthropology.

For more information about the celebration, and past and present honorees, visit the Celebration of Academic Excellence website.