October 1, 2009
Etc.: Campus news & notes
TV STARS: The Ken Burns series about the National Parks that has been running on PBS this week, America’s Best Idea, features film from the UW’s own Special Collections. The film originally came from Iwao Matsushita, a Japanese citizen who moved to Seattle in 1919 and organized outings to Mount Rainier National Park, where he not only took still photographs but also film. The segment is posted on YouTube here.
TOPS IN CITES: The UW is among the top 20 institutions listed by ScienceWatch.com for having the most-cited research papers published in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals over all 22 fields in the database. The top 20 come from a pool of 4,050 institutions comprising the top 1 percent ranked by total citation count over all fields. The UW ranked number four, with 54,198 papers cited a total of 1,147,283 times. ScienceWatch.com featured the UW’s Department of Earth and Space Sciences, and Minze Stuiver, one of the 20 most-cited scientists in geosciences and lead author of the most-cited paper in the geoscience field, “INTCAL98 radiocarbon age calibration, 24,000-0 cal BP” (Stuiver M, et al., Radiocarbon 40[3]: 1041-83, 1998). G. Alan Marlatt, one of the top 20 researchers in the special topic of underage/college drinking, is also affiliated with the University.
OUTSTANDING ONLINE: Emily Bender, assistant professor of linguistics, has received the R1edu award for significant contributions to online distance learning. Bender launched an online pilot course in 2007 for the UW master’s degree program in computational linguistics, using Web conferencing as the course delivery method. She expanded this approach the following year in launching an online certificate program in natural language technology. This autumn, she will be starting an online option for delivery of the entire computational linguistics degree. Her use of online technology has opened the degree program to audiences who are geographically remote from the UW classroom or would otherwise have difficulty attending classes on campus.
EMERGENCY MAN: The governance board of the International Association of Emergency Managers recently appointed Steven Charvat, UW director of emergency
management, to the position of secretary. Charvat is a past president of the association and is a two-term past chairman of the Certified Emergency Manager Commission.
BRAVO BOOK: A book published by UW Press, Anthony Barbieri-Low’s Artisans of Early Imperial China has won the prestigious International Convention of Asian Scholars Book Prize, announced in August.
EXCELLENCE IN ESTUARIES: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has awarded Charles (“Si”) Simenstad, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, the 2009 Dr. Nancy Foster Habitat Conservation Award for his extraordinary commitment of more than 35 years to stewardship, research and outreach concerning our nation’s estuaries. Simenstad is a pioneer in coastal marine ecology. His contributions, including nearly 60 peer-reviewed papers, have been a force for estuarine research and conservation, reminding scientists, governments and the public that estuaries and nearshore habitats play vital roles in the ecology and conservation of many species, including salmon, herring, crabs and oysters.
SPACE AGE SCHOLAR: Apollo 13 Astronaut Fred Haise will present UW senior Andrew Ishizuka with a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation during the Space Grant Reception and Poster session from 2:30-5:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2 in the Walker-Ames Room, Kane. Ishizuka will graduate in the spring of 2010 with a chemistry and biochemistry double major. Haise will share his experiences as lunar module pilot on the famed Apollo 13 mission, known as NASA’s “successful failure,” at 2 p.m., before the poster session. The lecture is free and open to the public.
BUILDING BRIDGES: Scott Macklin, chief technology officer in the College of Education, has won the U.S. State Department of Education Exchanges Connect Award for outstanding contribution to the goals of bridging cultures and promoting international understanding. Macklin recently participated in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Diversity Conference — “Breaking Boundaries, Embracing Differences.” The week of events included a screening of his film, Masizakhe: Building Each Other” and follow-up panel discussions. This was the film’s homecoming. Masizakhe: Building Each Other directed by Macklin and his wife Angelica, is a feature-length documentary that focuses on the role that a new generation of activists are playing in shaping the future of South African society.
The Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS) is honoring a UW department and a UW staffer as part of its annual awards recognizing individuals or organizations who embody the FIUTS mission of international understanding and peace. The Jackson School of International Studies received the Shigemura Award, given annually since 1951 to an outstanding student, community member or organization that has been especially instrumental in promoting international understanding. The Jackson School is dedicated to interdisciplinary and comparative teaching and research about the peoples, cultures, and religions of the world and their interactions with one another. Anita Verna Crofts, director of FIUTS from 1998 to 2002, received the Gordon H. Sweany Award, given to a UW faculty or staff member who has done the most to support international students and international education the previous year. Crofts is currently the director of communication and outreach for the Global Health Leadership Program and clinical instructor in the Department of Global Health.
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.
