UConn faculty are making an impact and receiving recognition nationwide and around the world. Read a selection of their recent honors and accomplishments.

College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Laijun Lai, associate research professor of allied health sciences, received two grants totaling $1.75 million from the Stem Cell Research Program, and was awarded a patent for his work on development of a hybrid cytokine.

Stephen Swallow, professor of agricultural and resource economics, was awarded a $289,000 grant from USDA for research on “Credit Stacking in Environmental Markets.”

Steven Zinn, professor of animal science, received the 2014 UConn Counseling Program for Intercollegiate Athletes Academic Advisor of the Year Award.

 

Neag School of Education

Two kinesiology faculty were recognized with awards at the recent Eastern Athletic Trainers Association (EATA). Dr. Jeffrey Anderson, assistant director of Student Health Services, was honored with the David G Moyer Team Physician Award, EATA’s most prestigious award; and assistant professor Stephanie Mazerolle was recognized with the 2013 EATA Research Grant Award.

Kinesiology professor Douglas Casa was recently named to USA Football’s Medical Advisory Subcommittee on Research. The group of medical experts will work together to examine player safety, injury prevention, and trending health issues for America’s football community.

Jonathan Plucker, professor of educational leadership, co-wrote two books, Intelligence 101 and Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education: What the Research Says (2nd edition). He also guest-edited a special section on “Promoting High Quality Research” in the APA journal, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, to which Ron Beghetto, associate professor of educational psychology, also contributed a commentary. Plucker was also appointed to the American Psychological Association Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education, and the APA Coalition for Psychology on Higher Performance.

Suzanne Wilson, professor of curriculum and instruction, was chosen by AERA and Educational Researcher as an Outstanding Reviewer for 2013. She will be publicly recognized at the AERA annual meeting in April.

 

School of Engineering

A daylong Celebration of Women in Engineering conference was held on Feb. 18.

The Center for Clean Energy Engineering (C2E2) hosted nearly 60 industry guests for the Next Generation Microgrids conference on Feb. 26.

The School of Engineering received $1.66 million in new research funding in February, associated with 35 new awards.

 

School of Law

Dalie Jimenez, associate professor of law, and Patricia A. McCoy, professor of law, recently submitted a comment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on their advanced notice of proposed rulemaking for debt collection. In 2010 and 2011, McCoy took a leave from the Law School and joined the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where she helped form the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and, as the CFPB’s first assistant director for mortgage markets, oversaw the Bureau’s mortgage policy initiatives. Jimenez spent the 2011-2012 academic year at the CFPB. In addition, the Consumer Financial Distress Project she led with colleagues at Harvard Law School and the University of Maine School of Law, recently received a new grant from the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges Endowment.

Law professor James Stark’s recent article, “Changing Minds: The Work of Mediators and Empirical Studies of Persuasion” (written with Doug Frenkel), has been selected as the outstanding scholarly article of 2013 by the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR). CPR is a non-profit independent resource helping global businesses and their lawyers resolve complex commercial disputes more cost effectively.

 

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Professor emeritus of geography Jeffrey Osleeb has been awarded the Anderson Medal of Honor in Applied Geography for 2013 by the Association of American Geographers. This is the highest U.S. honor in the field of applied geography.

Nitis Mukhopadhyay, professor of statistics, has been elected to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Four CLAS faculty were featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post:

Associate professor of history and director of Africana studies Jelani Cobb gave commentary on the resurfacing of a video featuring R&B stars at George W. Bush’s inauguration, highlighting the balance between racial politics and a familiarity with Southern music and culture;

History professor Frank Costigliola wrote the piece “What Would Kennan Say to Obama,” about former diplomat George F. Kennan. Costigliola’s recent book about Kennan’s diaries was reviewed in the New York Times Book Review;

Associate professor of political science Stephen Dyson wrote a Washington Post opinion piece titled “What Russia’s invasion of Georgia means for Crimea;”

In the New York Times’ “Opinionator” blogs, Susan Schneider, associate professor of philosophy, explores the meaning of consciousness in the Oscar-winning film “Her,” in which a man falls in love with a computer program.

 

Institute of Materials Science

Richard Parnas, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, Ramamurthy Ramprasad, professor of materials science and engineering, Gregory Sotzing, professor of chemistry, and Barrett Wells, professor of physics, all members of the Institute of Materials Science, have been elected into membership in the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) for their outstanding research accomplishments at UConn.

 

School of Pharmacy

Amy Anderson, professor and acting head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Science, and Dennis Wright, professor of pharmaceutical science, received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for their research on Antimetabolites Effective against Resistant Gram-positive Bacteria

John Morris, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology and interim dean of the School of Pharmacy, was elected to become President of the Society of Toxicology, the premier international professional society in the field.

 

School of Social Work

Bowie State University College of Professional Studies awarded Dean Salome Raheim its Outstanding Alumni Award.

Salome Raheim, dean of the School of Social Work, and Robin Spath, associate professor of social work instruction and research, were awarded a five-year grant for $735,000 from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Children’s Bureau, to work with the Connecticut Department of Children and Families to advance child welfare education and services.

 

Torrington Campus

Kathy Knapp, assistant professor of English, received the 2013 Andrew J. Cappell Award from 20th Century Literature journal for her essay, “The Business of Forgetting: Post-War Living Memorials and the Post-Traumatic Suburb in Chang-Rae Lee’s ‘Aloft.’”