August 5, 2004
Etc.
FOR THE CAUSE: Jacqueline Brown, assistant vice provost for Information Technology Partnerships at the UW, will be honored with the 2004 EDUCAUSE Award for Leadership in the Profession at the association’s annual conference this October. The award is part of a program that recognizes prominent leaders in the field of higher education information technology management for significant achievement and broad influence.
Brown’s work has emphasized partnerships and collaboration, first with public and corporate sectors in the region as well as nationally and internationally, then with building innovative teaching and learning partnerships facilitated by participation in advanced networks. Most recently she has added biomedical and public health areas and international research opportunities to her earlier interests. She has been at the UW since 1999.
EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. Brown will be recognized at a general session of the annual conference, which draws more than 6,000 professionals involved in the management of information resources in higher education. EDUCAUSE is making a $2,000 contribution in Brown’s name to the UW’s Astronomy Department.
OUTSTANDING ONLINE: R1edu, a partnership of the top U.S. research universities involved in online education, has issued its annual awards to faculty for outstanding work in online educational programs. The UW’s Mamidala Ramulu, professor of mechanics, materials and design in the UW College of Engineering, is one of the winners. Ramulu secured funding from the Boeing Company to design and implement an online, interdisciplinary master’s degree in manufacturing engineering. He developed four online courses and helped create a new online, real-time Web conferencing system that serves as a main instructional tool for the program. This online tool has wide applications for other types of programs and content areas.
STAR IN SPACE: NASA headquarters has extended funding for the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium for five more years, citing the statewide program’s overall excellence and significant achievements, especially its undergraduate research programs.
Reviewers singled out the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) at the UW for special praise, ranking it as being “among the best such programs in the world.”
Reviewers also praised Washington Space Grant’s management practices as outstanding. “Their wise and frugal use of NASA funds should become a model for all other consortia,” reviewers wrote.
The Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium comprises 13 academic and informal education institutions, with the UW as the lead institution. Established in 1989, its mission is to assure a productive future in aerospace science and technology through activities designed to improve basic science and aerospace-related education and research opportunities for residents of Washington and the nation.
GRADS EXCEL: Two UW doctoral graduates, one from aquatic and fishery sciences and the other from neurobiology, are among the 34 new recipients of the National Science Foundation’s international research fellowships. The fellowships, averaging about $100,000 per student, allow them to work with colleagues, instrumentation and research environments available overseas.
Kristin Laidre is studying arctic whale phenology, biogeography and the impacts of climate change at Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. Laidre earned her doctorate from the UW School of Aquatic and fishery Sciences with a dissertation on the foraging ecology of narwhals in high Arctic Canada and Greenland. Associate professor Glenn VanBlaricom was chair of her committee.
Jamie Theobald is studying the flight and motion perception in nocturnal bees at Lund University in Sweden. He earned his doctorate through the UW’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, working in the lab of biology professor Thomas Daniel on his dissertation concerning visual motion perception in insects under low light conditions.
The international research fellowships are awarded to “promising and talented American postdoctoral scientists and engineers,” according to the National Science Foundation. This year’s awardees come from more than 20 states and 25 universities.
Do you know someone who deserves kudos for an outstanding achievement, award, appointment or book publication? If so, send that person’s name, title and achievement to uweek@u.washington.edu.
