University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: August 29, 2002

By DONNA LONGENECKER
Reporter Assistant Editor

Seven faculty members, four professional staff members and two librarians at UB have received 2002 SUNY Chancellor's Awards for Excellence from Chancellor Robert L. King.

The Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching honors those who consistently have demonstrated superb teaching at the undergraduate, graduate or professional level. This year's recipients are Alexander Cartwright, associate professor of electrical engineering; Huw Davies, professor of chemistry; Cyrus Madnia, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; Patricia McCartney, clinical professor of nursing, and Natalie Simpson, associate professor of management science and systems.

The Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities—a new award this year—recognizes the work of those who engage actively in scholarly and creative pursuit beyond their teaching responsibilities. UB recipients are Susan Howe, professor of English, and Barry Smith, Julian Park Professor of Philosophy.

The Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service honors performance excellence "both within and beyond the position." Recipients are Voldemar A. Innus, vice president and chief information officer; Janina (Nina) L. Kaars, senior assistant vice provost for academic affairs; David J. Nuzzo, head of the acquisitions department for the University Libraries Central Technical Services, and Stephen N. Wallace, director of the Office of Academic Services to Athletes.

The Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship recognizes "skill in librarianship; service to the campus, the university and to the field; scholarship and professional growth, and major professional achievements." This year's recipients are Renee Bush, coordinator of collection development for the Health Sciences Library, and Karen D. Senglaup, director of access services for the Arts and Sciences Libraries.

Alexander Cartwright, a faculty member since 1995, has won numerous prestigious awards, among them are the 2000 Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award and the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award in 1998, as well as UB's Reifler Award.

Cartwright holds several administrative posts in addition to his faculty position, serving as deputy director of the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics; principal investigator of the NSF-sponsored Integrative Graduate Education Research and Training grant (IGERT) in biophotonics materials and applications; director of the Laboratory for Advanced Spectroscopic Evaluation, and co-director for the Electronics Packaging Laboratory.

Huw M. L. Davies, Larkin Professor of Organic Chemistry, has been a UB faculty member since 1995. Davies is the recipient of a Sustained Achievement Award from UB this spring, and received an Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences in 2001.

Director of the Department of Chemistry's graduate program, he holds more than 10 drug-related patents and has published widely in journals and books, as well being a frequent presenter at national and international meetings. His current research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and Johnson and Johnson.

Cyrus Madnia, who joined the UB faculty in 1992, is affiliated with the Computational Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. His research interests lie in the areas of direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent reactive flows, flame-vortex interaction, turbulent mixing, chemical kinetics, free-surface flows and mathematical modeling of chemically reacting turbulent flows.

Madnia has received a NSF CAREER Award, a Boeing Fellowship and the Ralph R. Teeter Education Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers. He serves as deputy director of education for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and is the group's faculty advisor at UB.

The recipient of numerous awards for excellence in education and teaching, Patricia McCartney has been an innovator of program development in the area of women's health and perinatal care. She founded the Perinatal Nursing Discussion List, an international and interdisciplinary Internet electronic mail list devoted to issues of perinatal care. An adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Women's Studies and UB faculty member since 1981, she developed a popular undergraduate general education science course on women's health.

McCartney also worked with the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) to develop a course for practicing nurses on fetal heart monitoring, which now is offered internationally.

A UB faculty member since 1994, Natalie Simpson has been recognized previously for teaching excellence. She received the "Outstanding Contribution to Teaching" award from the School of Management in 1997 and the Graduate Management Association's "Most Approachable Professor" award in 2001.

A member of the Decision Sciences Institute and the American Production and Inventory Control Society, her research interests include inventory control, supply chain logistics and emergency services. Simpson is a volunteer firefighter in East Aurora, and served as academic-in-residence during the summers of 2001 and 2002 at Gainesville Fire and Rescue in Gainesville, Fla., providing in-house consulting services on operations management and planning for the municipal fire department.

Susan Howe, a critically acclaimed poet and literary theorist, joined the English faculty in 1989. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999 and in 2000 to the Academy of American Poets' Board of Chancellors, the academy's advisory body of eminent poets.

Howe is the author of numerous books of poetry, and her work has been widely anthologized and celebrated with lectures and poetry readings at major national and international universities, literary festivals and conferences. She has twice received the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and may be best-known for "My Emily Dickinson" (1985), an acclaimed critical study considered a landmark in creative scholarship.

A UB faculty member since 1993, Barry Smith is the recipient of the $2 million Wolfgang Paul Award from Germany's Humboldt Foundation, believed to be the largest prize ever awarded to a philosopher. The award will fund Smith's ongoing series of pioneering studies designed to show that philosophical methods and theories can be applied to information science. It also will give him the opportunity to conduct research at a German academic institution for three years.

Smith also helped to develop an emerging specialization in ontology and information science in the master's degree program in philosophy to help train ontologists needed by private industry, government, non-profit organizations and other institutions to develop and manage large databases and directories.

In his role as CIO, Voldemar Innus has overseen information-technology planning and implementation efforts across the university. He joined the UB professional staff in 1971 after graduating from the university with a bachelor's degree in business administration. He earned an MBA from UB in 1975.

Innus has held numerous administrative posts at the university, including director of graduate student affairs, director of resource management systems and assistant dean for academic affairs, all in the School of Management. In 1979, he was named assistant vice president for academic affairs and associate provost for administrative systems in 1984.

Moving from the provost's office to University Services in 1986, he first served as associate vice president for resource planning, then associate vice president and senior associate vice president in 1992. He assumed CIO duties in 1996 and last month assumed the title of vice president.

Nina Kaars, who was named senior assistant vice provost for academic affairs earlier this month, previously served as director of student academic and financial processing services. In that position, she oversaw coordination of processing services for the former offices of Records and Registration, Financial Aid and Student Accounts. She also served as university registrar.

A UB professional staff member for more than 20 years, Kaars has served in a variety of positions on campus, including coordinator of the undergraduate program in biochemistry, assistant to the vice provost for undergraduate education, director of the Academic Advisement Center and assistant vice provost for undergraduate education. She is a member of the University Curriculum Committee and the Faculty Senate Grading Committee, and has been a member of numerous other university panels, including the Freshman Orientation Committee, the Campus Wide Advisement Council and the Undergraduate College General Assembly.

David Nuzzo, a member of the professional staff since 1981, worked briefly as an assistant librarian in the Undergraduate Library before assuming his current position in Central Technical Services in the University Libraries.

As head of the Acquisitions Department, he oversees such departmental operations as bibliographic searching; record importing, editing and creation ordering; receiving, and processing of monographs, periodicals and serials for the General Libraries, the Music Library and the Poetry/Rare Books Room.

Nuzzo has given numerous presentations at professional conferences, and also has served as a guest lecturer for various courses in the Department of Library and Information Studies in the School of Informatics. He is the recipient of the 2001 Ray Murray Award, given by the New York State Library Assistants' Association to those "who have contributed to the recognition and/or professional growth of library assistants."

A former junior-senior high school math teacher, Stephen Wallace joined the UB professional staff in 1968 as an undergraduate academic advisor for math, science and engineering. He served as assistant director for undergraduate advisement from 1973-83, and became director of academic services for the Division of Athletics in 1983. In that capacity, he created the Office of Athlete Academic Services, which now offers a comprehensive program of academic advising and support to more than 500 student-athletes. During the 19 years Wallace has worked directly with student-athletes, UB has seen a steady increase in the grade-point averages and graduation rates of its athletes.

Renee Bush, a UB librarian since 1988, coordinates the development and maintenance of the print and electronic collections of the Health Sciences Library (HSL) and serves as the primary selector for 25 subject areas. She serves as HSL liaison to the School of Dental Medicine, the biomedical science departments of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences. She also contributes to the HSL's reference service and instruction program.

In 1994, Bush founded and continues to serve as faculty advisor to the Student Group of the Special Libraries Association, which provides programming and leadership opportunities for the students in the Department of Library and Information Studies.

Since 1996, Karen Senglaup has been the director of access services within the Arts and Sciences Libraries, insuring the effective operation of circulation, reserve, interlibrary loan and billing service points, as well as overseeing stacks and facility maintenance.

A UB librarian since 1981, she also participates as a senior administrator in overall University Libraries strategies and operational planning, and serves as the libraries' expert on copyright, with special regard for how interlibrary loan, reserve and document-delivery policies and procedures are maintained within the law. She is a frequent guest lecturer on issues of copyright and intellectual property issues in the digital environment.