News roundups

March 30, 2011

Etc: Campus News & Notes

BIKE-FRIENDLY: The UW community has long known that its campuses are friendly to bike riders, but now the League of American Bicyclists has made it official. In its annual conference, the National Bike Summit, March 8-10, the league gave the UW and eight other institutions a silver designation for being a place where biking thrives. Stanford led with a platinum award, followed by the University of California Davis and Santa Barbara with gold distinctions. Press notes from the league state, “The Bicycle Friendly University program recognizes colleges and universities that create exceptional environments where bicycling can thrive and provides a roadmap and technical assistance to create great campuses for bicycling.” The UWs application highlighted its extensive bike parking options and safety classes as well as the annual Ride in the Rain winter commute challenge, where more than 1,000 riders a year commute by bike; and its award-winning participation in National Bike to Work Month each May.

WIELDING INFLUENCE: Samson Jenekhe, professor of chemistry and chemical engineering, ranks as the worlds 39^th most influential materials scientist of the past decade, according to the Times Higher Educations calculation of citation impact for articles or reviews published since January 2000. Jenekhes research is on polymers that efficiently emit light for video displays and harvest light for solar cells.

BIOPHYSICAL FELLOW: Valerie Daggett, professor of bioengineering, was named a 2011 Fellow of the Biophysical Society for her technical innovations and improvements in the field of molecular dynamic simulation. She was among new fellows honored at the societys 55th annual meeting, held in Baltimore on March 7.

YOUNG INVESTIGATOR: Assistant Professor Chantel Prat was recently awarded the 2011 Tom Trabasso Young Investigator Award by the Society for Text and Discourse. This honor recognizes outstanding early career contributions to text and discourse research, as well as superior promise for leadership in the field. The award commemorates the dedication of Professor Tom Trabasso — one of the founders of the society —to fostering young scholars.

LABORING FOR LABOR: Kathy Hoggan, director of Trademarks and Licensing, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Fair Labor Association, an international labor rights organization striving to improve working conditions in factories around the world.  Her three-year term begins June 1. The 19-member board of directors, the associations policy-making body, comprises equal representation for each of its three constituent groups: companies, colleges and universities, and civil society organizations.

HISTORY HEROES: Several professors in the Department of History have received honors lately. Jordanna Bailkin, associate professor, has been awarded the Walter D. Love Article Prize from the North American Conference on British Studies for her article “The Postcolonial Family? West African Children, Private Fostering, and the British State,” Journal of Modern History (2009). Bailkin also has been named a Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History. Patricia Ebrey, professor, has received the 2010 Shimada Prize for her book, Accumulating Culture: The Collections of Emperor Huizong.  The Shimada Prize is awarded for distinguished scholarship in the history of East Asian art every two years by the Smithsonians Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, and The Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art Studies in Kyoto, Japan. Susan Glenn, Howard and Frances Keller Endowed Professor, was named an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer. And Stephanie M.H. Camp, associate professor, is newly appointed as the Dio Richardson Endowed Professor of History.