Faculty and Staff Notes

Honors Baccalaureate Recognizes Finest Faculty, Students

Top awards for faculty and students highlight tonight's University Honors Baccalaureate and Celebration of Academic Excellence at 7:30 p.m. in the McKimmon Center.

The NC State Board of Trustees will award the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal of Excellence to two faculty members whose careers exemplify the highest standards of excellence in teaching, research and service. Honored this year are Dr. William Adler, professor of philosophy and religion, and Dr. Alan York, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Crop Science. The Holladay Medal is the highest award given by the Board of Trustees and the university, and recognizes a lifetime of outstanding achievement in support of NC State's mission.

Dr. Maxine P. Atkinson, professor of sociology and head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, will receive the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.

NC State students who have won nationally competitive honors – including one Gates Cambridge Scholarship, one Morris K. Udall Scholarship and 15 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, to name a few – will also be recognized at the baccalaureate.

See the full listing of recognized recipients at: http://www.ncsu.edu/project/OPDWebSpace/honors/program.htm

That's not an eggbeater next to the Solar House, it's a new wind turbine. Cool.

Unusual Wind Turbine Installed at Solar House

A new vertical wind turbine that's only 30 feet tall has been installed at the Solar House. Instead of propeller blades, the Windspire has aluminum air foils that spin around a central pole, giving it the appearance of a giant eggbeater.

Brian Miles, extension wind specialist with the Solar Center, coordinated the installation in time for demonstrations at a recent renewable energy conference at the McKimmon Center.

Because of its size and quiet operation, the Windspire could be used in residential and urban areas, said Addie Randall with Blue Sun Renewable Energy, a partner with the Solar Center on the project. The turbines can be placed in groups for power production without tall towers, and a Connecticut university plans to install 42 Windspires at the center of its new green campus.

Windspires are now being built at a former auto-parts factory in Michigan. Viewers of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition can see an installation on the show's season finale May 17.

Horticulture Team Takes Top Journal Award

The American Society for Horticultural Science gave its Outstanding Cross-Commodity Publication award to a journal article by Dr. Jessica G. Barb, recent doctoral student; Dennis J. Werner, Raulston Distinguished Professor of Horticultural Science; and Dr. Robert Griesbach, a researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Md.

"Genetics and Biochemistry of Flower Color in Stokes Aster," was published in the July 2008 edition of the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science. The award will be presented July 25 in St. Louis, Mo., at the association's annual conference.

History Professor Chosen for National Humanities Center Fellowship

Dr. Holly Brewer, associate professor of history, was selected for a 2009-10 fellowship at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park. She will join 32 other distinguished scholars from the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom.

Chosen from 475 applicants, fellows represent the fields of history, literature, philosophy, art history, anthropology, environmental studies, musicology, and religion. Each will work individually on a substantial research project and have the opportunity to share ideas in seminars, lectures, and conferences.

Brewer's project is titled, "Inheritable Blood: Of Slavery and Freedom, Aristocracy and Empire in Early Virginia and the British Atlantic." She received the Walter Hines Page Fellowship of the Research Triangle Foundation. She continues the recent success of NC State faculty in the center's highly competitive fellowship competition. This year the center welcomed Dr. Gary Comstock, professor of philosophy, for a second year in residence.

Adjunct Faculty Member Honored

Bill Harazin, an attorney and adjunct associate professor in textile and apparel technology and management, received the 2009 John J. Dortch International Service Award from the International Law and Practice Section of the North Carolina Bar Association. The award is given for serving as a role model in international law, demonstrating the highest levels of ethical standards and showing professional competence.

Harazin was instrumental in creating the bar association's Lawyer Exchange. He led the inaugural delegation to Taiwan in 2006 and took part in a 2008 exchange with Argentina. He has been a member of the international law section since its inception in 1992 and served as chair in 1998-99.

The Department of Statistics is counted among Mathematics Programs that Make a Difference.

Statistics Department Recognized for Diversity Efforts

The American Mathematical Society's Committee on the Profession designated the Department of Statistics as one of two Mathematics Programs that Make a Difference for 2009. The award recognizes outstanding records in recruiting members of underrepresented groups and mentoring them to successfully complete graduate degrees.

Of 40 statistics faculty, 11 are female, three are African-American and two are Hispanic. In the past 10 years, 15 minority students have received master's degrees and two have earned Ph.D.s. The department has about 160 graduate students, including nine African-American and four Hispanic students. More than half of the students in the department are female.

NC State has cultivated ties to other institutions, particularly historically black colleges and universities, as well as to organizations such as the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). Co-Director of Graduate Programs Pam Arroway visits small colleges and summer programs to recruit students and to network and maintain strong relationships with their mentors. Faculty advisors work extensively with new students, who are also assigned a more-advanced student who acts as a mentor, or "stat buddy."

Faculty member Kimberly Weems organizes activities for minority students and meets individually with them to ensure successful progress. Department head Sastry Pantula has twice been selected for a university diversity award. Other department faculty members have received similar recognition, including Weems and Jackie Hughes-Oliver. Graduate student Anthony Franklin received a university diversity award for his support of students and for recruiting new students of all backgrounds.

Statistics has received two National Science Foundation VIGRE grants that helped support minority students. Recently the department received an S-STEM (Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) grant from the NSF to provide scholarships for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students with financial need.

Kinsella President-Elect of Environmental Communication Division

Dr. Bill Kinsella, associate professor of communication, will begin a term this November as president of the environmental communication division of the National Communication Association, a group of researchers, educators and professionals dedicated to advancing human communication. As vice-president of the division, Kinsella's responsibilities include selecting conference speakers for the NCA annual meeting in the fall.

Berube Lead Author for Nanotechnology White Paper

Dr. David Berube, professor of communication, is lead author of a National Science Foundation-funded white paper, "Nanotechnology: Communicating Risk in the 21st Century." The National Nanotechnology Coordinating Office will distribute the white paper to guide government officials in communicating about nanotechnology with the public and media.

Berube's team included faculty members Brenton Faber, formerly of NC State, and Dietram Scheufele of Wisconsin, as well as graduate and doctoral students Chris Cummings, Grant Gardner, Kelly Martin, and Nick Temple. They spent nine months compiling the 150-page document and negotiating edits with 25 federal agency and departmental partners in the National Nanotechnology Initiative.

Hendrickson Wins NACTA Award

Melissa Hendrickson, lecturer in agricultural and resource economics, received the 2009 North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Teaching Fellow Award.

Award criteria include the instructor's teaching philosophy and evaluations from current students, alumni, administrative officers and peers. Availability to students, teaching innovations and departmental/institutional activity are also considered.

Extension Forestry Team Wins Education Award

The N.C. Association of Cooperative Extension Specialists honored a university team for creating an outstanding educational program about renewable energy derived from woody biomass.

Members included extension and outreach faculty members Robert Bardon, Dennis Hazel, Mark Megalos, James Jeuck, Christopher Hopkins, Susan Moore and Kelley Duffield McCarter and graduate students Jasmine Shaw and Susan McIntyre.