UW News

December 7, 2011

Etc.: Campus news & notes

LANGUAGE LEADER: Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences Patricia K. Kuhl has been awarded the Jean-Louis Signoret Neuropsychology Prize of the Fondation Ipsen for her work that played a major role in the understanding of language acquisition and the neural bases of language. She also studied the early development of the brains of bilingual children. Kuhl is the co-director of the Institute for Brain and Learning Sciences at the UW. She has been on the faculty since 1977.

ARTISTS EXTRAORDINAIRE: Professor of Art Akio Takamori has been named a USA Ford Fellow, one of 50 artists honored by United States Artists. Takamori, who is in the 3D4M division of the School of Art, was chosen from among 311 applicants. He will receive an unrestricted grant of $50,000. Takamoris hand-painted figurative works are in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art and other institutions, and have also been shown locally. Three of his large-scale sculptures can be seen in front of Whole Foods at the corner of Denny Way and Westlake Avenue. A graduate of the School of Art, Roger Shimomura, also received a USA Ford Fellowship, and another alum, Jenny Sabin, was selected for a USA Knight Fellowship. United States Artists is an organization that “invests in America’s finest artists and illuminates the value of artists to society.”

EMPOWERING DISABLED: Sheryl Burgstahler, director of the UWs DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Center, is this years recipient of the Strache Leadership Award, given by California State University Northridges Center on Disabilities. The award honors leaders in the fields of disabilities and assistive technology who have contributed to educational efforts and collaborations with students with disabilities. It will be presented to Burgstahler at the International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference in February.

DIVERSITY IN SCIENCE: A project to encourage minorities studying genetics has won the 2011 Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement Award from the Seattle Society for Human Resource Management. Members of the GenOm project will attend a Dec. 8 event to receive the award. GenOm works to target incoming freshman and give them support toward science careers.

THREE FROM CSE: The Association for Computing Machinery named three UW researchers as fellows for 2011 on Dec. 8. The three are all faculty in the college of Computer Science and Engineering:  Carl Ebeling and Dan Suciu, professors, and David Wetherall, an associate professor. The three were honored for their achievements in architecture and design of reconfigurable systems, and computer network design.