April 2, 2009
Etc.: Campus News & Notes
STAR ADVISERS: Two members of the UW community have won the National Academic Advising Association’s Pacific Northwest Region 8 Academic Advising Awards. Kurt Xyst, an academic adviser in Undergraduate Advising, and Patrick Pineda, an advising intern who has since left the University, will be recognized for excellence in academic advising at the association’s regional conference later this month.
THERAPEUTICALLY INFLUENTIAL: Psychology Professor Marsha Linehan’s book, Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder, and its companion skills training manual were both ranked number one in influence among 2,459 psychotherapists in a Web-based survey. The survey was reported in the March, 2009 issue of the journal, Psychotherapy Theory, Research, Practice, Training. The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work, by Psychology Professor Emeritus John Gottman was number four on the list. Gottman was also among the top 10 influential figures named by therapists participating in the survey. He was number nine.
FAR FROM THE BEACH: Two UW faculty members traveled to D.C. over spring break to talk to members of Congress about the future of computing research. Ed Lazowska, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering, helped organize “Computing Research that Changed the World: Reflections and Perspectives,” a daylong symposium at the Library of Congress put on by the Computing Community Consortium, which he chairs. He also gave the opening and summary remarks. Julie Kientz, assistant professor in the UW’s Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering and The Information School, helped show how information technology can be used to support autism and related disorders. The agenda and, soon, presentations for the March 25 event are available here.
SABBATICAL STRETCH: Psychology Professor Jeansok Kim will receive the James McKeen Cattell Fund Sabbatical Award at the Association for Psychological Science’s convention in May. The award supplements the regular sabbatical allowance provided by a recipient’s home institution, to allow an extension of leave-time from one to two semesters. Kim plans to use his sabbatical to study how stress affects the brain’s hippocampus.
ORDER UP: First they jump into cold water, now they’ll be serving hot food to benefit the Special Olympics. The UW Police will participate in Red Robin restaurant’s national “Tip-a-Cop” campaign day April 18, during which area police departments work for tips by serving your food in uniform. One hundred percent of the tips are donated to Special Olympics. The effort follows January’s Polar Plunge, which found the UW Police teaming with Seattle Police to jump into Lake Washington in return for Special Olympics donations. At that event they raised more than $17,000 for the organization, which helps people with developmental disabilities compete in athletics. The UW Police hope to raise $50,000 this year for Special Olympics. Tip-a-Cop is from noon to 8 p.m. at the Red Robin located near the UW campus on the corner of Eastlake Avenue East and Furman Avenue East.
STATE LEADER: Miranda Wecker, marine program manager for the College of Forest Resources’ Olympic Natural Resources Center, was recently appointed chair of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission. Wecker worked in the Olympic National Forest for a few years before getting two law degrees from the UW, one of them an advanced degree in marine law. She began her position at the center in 1995, where one of her major efforts is the control of spartina, the invasive, non-native grass that has threatened to take over the bay’s mud flats. Spartina has destroyed habitat for native plants and wildlife, affecting an important flyway used by migratory shorebirds, and has eliminated shellfish seed beds, threatening the $30 million local shellfish industry.
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