Gifts to Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives endow awards for top faculty

Gifts to Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives endow awards for top faculty

*Editor's Note: Faculty award recipient bios follow release.*

EUGENE, Ore.--(Feb. 5, 2007)--Thanks to new gifts to Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives, 20 of the UO's best faculty are being recognized for their excellence, UO Senior Vice President and Provost Linda Brady announced today.

Brady congratulated the first recipients of awards from the Fund for Faculty Excellence, which was established in October with an initial gift from an anonymous donor of $5.2 million and was recently doubled to $10.4 million with another anonymous gift. The gifts were contributions to Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives, which has raised $492 million in private gifts toward a goal of $600 million for the university.

"The Fund for Faculty Excellence is designed to support the University of Oregon's strategic commitment to improve its overall academic quality and reputation by recruiting, supporting, recognizing and retaining world-class faculty," Brady said. "This fund is designed to provide salary adjustments and other support to faculty deemed vulnerable to recruitment by other top institutions. It will enable us to be proactive in our retention efforts."

The faculty members receiving the awards are "on the cutting edge of research in their disciplines and emerging areas of interdisciplinary research in fields such as nanoscience, environmental sustainability and conflict resolution," she said. "Their national and international reputations draw the best students who are seeking opportunities to study and work with outstanding teachers and mentors."

"I am profoundly grateful to our many donors who recognize that recruiting and retaining extraordinary faculty members is the key to sustaining and improving the university's overall academic quality," said UO President Dave Frohnmayer.

"The overarching goal of Campaign Oregon is to generate investment capital directed at sustaining and further enhancing academic quality," said UO Vice President for Advancement Allan Price. "We have already raised in excess of $50 million in new endowment to support excellent faculty at UO. This new Fund for Faculty Excellence is a wonderful example of how philanthropy can transform the university by helping to recognize and reward excellent faculty."

Fourteen of the 20 recipients are from the College of Arts and Sciences: Carlos Aguirre, history; Dare Baldwin, psychology; Alice Barkan, biology; Bryna Goodman, history; Susan Guion, linguistics; Michael Haley, chemistry; James Hutchison, chemistry; Alexander Kleshchev, mathematics; Massimo Lollini, Romance languages; W. Andrew Marcus, geography; Christopher Minson, human physiology; Jeffrey Ostler, history; Patrick Phillips, biology; and Regina Psaki, Romance languages.

Four recipients are from the School of Architecture and Allied Arts: Douglas Blandy, arts administration; Kenneth Helphand, landscape architecture; Jeffrey Hurwit, art history; and Alison Kwok, architecture.

Recipient Michael Moffitt is from the School of Law, and recipient Milagro Vargas is a voice professor in the School of Music and Dance (see attachment for brief bios on the recipients).

Recipients say the awards will definitely help keep top faculty members from defecting for higher salaries. But the recognition from their colleagues and administrators is even more important. "Recognizing the efforts of faculty builds loyalty," said Susan Guion, associate professor of linguistics.

"I feel very honored, gratified and flattered," said Jeffrey Hurwit, a professor of art history who will use part of his award for travel to support his research on Greek art and architecture. "It's a great feeling to be recognized by one's peers and by the administration for a long career that's not over yet."

About 50 candidates for the awards were nominated by department heads and deans. The recipients were chosen by the provost based on recommendations by a group of distinguished faculty members. The salary supplements are for five years and are renewable. Brady said she hopes eventually to make the supplements permanent. She and Price hope to grow the Faculty Excellence Fund to $40 or $50 million and to make new awards each year.

Research support and salary supplements range from $6,000 to $15,000 a year. The salary supplements help close a salary gap between University of Oregon faculty members and professors at peer institutions, Brady said. "University of Oregon salaries across disciplines and faculty ranks are at 86 percent of our peers, based on 2005-06 data on average faculty salaries at our Association of American Universities public sector peers. The most significant gaps are at the rank of professor, generally the most senior, accomplished, and nationally and internationally recognized faculty at the University of Oregon."

Fourteen of the 20 recipients hold the rank of professor and five are associate professors.

Of the $473 million raised so far by Campaign Oregon, $53 million is for faculty support, including awards, fellowships, endowed chairs and professorships and research support. During the campaign, 30 new endowed chairs and professorships have been established with gifts from donors.

University of Oregon Faculty Excellence Awards Academic Year 2006/07 Recipient bios:

Carlos A. Aguirre, Associate Professor of History.
Carlos Aguirre is a scholar of modern Latin America with an established and rapidly growing national and international reputation. He has recently published a third book, "The Criminals of Lima and Their Worlds: The Prison Experience," expanding his work on criminality and imprisonment in Latin America. Aguirre's research is supported by a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and an American Historical Association Littleton-Griswold Grant. He also has received University of Oregon grants on behalf of Latin American Studies, a community of teachers and researchers in which he is a central figure. Aguirre has won the UO's Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching. He serves the university on the Wayne Morse Center Advisory Board, the Savage Endowment for International Relations and Peace Committee, as director of the Latin American Studies Program and in many other capacities. He has been on the UO faculty since 1996.

Dare Baldwin, Professor of Psychology.
Dare Baldwin's research concerns language and cognitive development in infancy and early childhood. Her primary interests are the mechanisms by which infants and young children acquire knowledge to guide future learning and action. Baldwin’s research draws together several subfields of psychology and has important consequences for understanding how humans make sense of action. Her research bridges cognitive and developmental psychology, and she is spearheading a group of researchers interested in autism. Baldwin was recently appointed a fellow of the American Psychological Society, and her research is currently supported by a National Science Foundation grant. Baldwin’s standing in the field is clearly indicated by her recent receipt of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Cattell Sabbatical Fellowship. She has been at the UO since 1993.

Alice Barkan, Professor of Biology.
Alice Barkan is an internationally recognized leader in the field of chloroplast biology. Barkan employs powerful genetic and molecular methods for her studies, using maize as a model. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S.-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund. Over the past seven years, Barkan has published in prominent scientific journals that reach a broad audience, and her collaborations involve both international researchers and plant biotechnology corporations. In addition to her scientific contributions, Barkan has also worked extensively in the department of biology’s graduate education program. She has served on the Graduate Affairs Committee for many years, and is now associate director of the Institute of Molecular Biology. Barkan is an outstanding teacher who received the Department of Biology Teacher of the Year Award in 2001. She has been on the UO faculty since 1991.

Douglas Blandy, Professor of Arts Administration.
Douglas Blandy, a nationally regarded teacher and scholar in art education and arts administration, has written on cultural issues that bridge art theory, contemporary art practice, and community arts action. His books include "Histories of Community-Based Art Education"; "Remembering Others: Making Invisible Histories of Art Education Visible" with P. Bolin; and "Pluralistic Approaches to Art Criticism" and "Art in a Democracy," both co-edited with K. Congdon. He has received the most prominent publishing award in his field, the Manual Barkan Award from the National Art Education Association. Professor Blandy is associate dean of academic affairs for the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts and director of the Institute for Community Arts Studies. As director of the institute, he inaugurated the on-line advisory "CultureWork." Blandy has held leadership posts with the National Art Education Association and the U.S. Society for Education through Art. Blandy has served on the UO faculty since 1987.

Bryna Goodman, Professor of History.
Bryna Goodman is a distinguished scholar of modern China whose work on regional networks and identities in Shanghai has been recognized by experts in China, who translated and published her book, "Native Place, City and Nation: Regional Networks and Identities in Shanghai, 1853-1937." Goodman's work concerns urban China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and she has published extensively on female suicide, the emergence of newspapers, and the problems encountered by professional women under the changing social conditions of modernity. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Freeman Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, and holds the important and demanding position of modern China editor for the Journal of Asian Studies. Goodman and her students play an important and visible role in the university's new China Flagship Program. Goodman has been on the UO faculty since 1991.

Susan G. Guion, Associate Professor of Linguistics.
Susan Guion is a leading scholar of linguistics in her subfield of experimental and cognitive phonetics. Guion's work on second language acquisition, which has appeared in many top journals, has been recognized by grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the Korea Research Foundation, and she collaborates locally, nationally, and internationally on a wealth of research projects. Recognized as a fine teacher, Guion is the only faculty member in the linguistics department who works extensively with students from both the theoretical linguistics program and the language teaching specialization master's program. She manages most of the undergraduates in the second language acquisition and teaching program, which involves substantial mentoring and organization, and represents the department in a joint program between Hanyang University in Korea and the UO. She has been on the UO faculty since 1999.

Michael M. Haley, Professor of Chemistry.
Michael Haley's research involves the exploration of important non-natural aromatic systems; his research group utilizes current synthetic methodology for the preparation of novel organic materials and compounds of theoretical interest. Haley's research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Chemical Society. His teaching and research are a critically important key in the Department of Chemistry's instructional and research program. Haley has worked with others to develop organic chemistry as a gateway course into the major and health-related science careers and is a winner of the UO's Thomas F. Herman Faculty Achievement Award for Distinguished Teaching. He has been on the UO faculty since 1993.

Kenneth Helphand, Professor of Landscape Architecture.
Kenneth Helphand was honored with the UO's Thomas F. Herman Faculty Achievement Award for Distinguished Teaching and has been recognized as a fellow by the American Society of Landscape Architects. A member in the department of landscape architecture, Helphand has been an invited lecturer at institutions around the globe and is considered among the elite worldwide in the area of landscape history and theory. His most recent book, "Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime" (2006), has attracted international recognition including the honor of Book of the Year from the United Kingdom's New Statesman. Other publications include "Dreaming Gardens: Landscape Architecture and the Making of Modern Israel," "Yard Street Park: The Design of Suburban Open Space" with C. Girling, and "Colorado: Visions of an American Landscape." His honors include the American Society of Landscape Architects Merit Award for Research and Communications, a Graham Foundation Grant, and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Award of Distinction for Excellence in Teaching. Helphand has been on the UO faculty since 1974.

Jeffrey Hurwit, Professor of Art History.
Jeffrey Hurwit has published major books on Greek art, architecture and archaeology, providing an essential foundation for art history scholarship. He is one of the leading scholars of the archaic and classical periods in Greek art and has appeared in major documentary films and lectures at the world's leading universities, museums, and archaeological institutes. "Periklean Athens and its Legacy: Problems and Perspectives," co-edited with J. Barringer (2005), "The Acropolis in the Age of Pericles," (2004), along with his earlier books and writings have contributed new work to the field of ancient art history. Hurwit is a member of the department of art history with a co-appointment in the department of classics. Among other distinctions, he was been the inaugural 2003 Dorothy Burr Thompson Memorial Lecturer, University of British Columbia, and held the 2000-01 Martha S. Joukowsky Lectureship, Archaeological Institute of America. Hurwit received the UO's Wayne T. Westling Award for University Leadership and Service. Professor Hurwit has been on the UO faculty since 1980.

James E. Hutchison, Professor of Chemistry.
Jim Hutchison works on surface-based supramolecular chemistry, nanoscience, and sustainable chemical practices. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Hutchison co-authored the first laboratory textbook on green Chemistry, "Green Organic Chemistry: Strategies, Tools and Laboratory Experiments." He was named Oregon Academy of Science Outstanding Teacher of Science and Mathematics in Higher Education in 2003. His work on the instructional aspects of green organic chemistry has made him a nationally known leader in curriculum development, and he is an important leader in the emerging area of nanoscience. He has been on the UO faculty since 1994.

Alexander S. Kleshchev, Professor of Mathematics.
Alexander Kleshchev works on algebraic representation theory. In just the past two years he has produced two books, "Linear and Projective Representations of Symmetric Groups," published by Cambridge University Press, and the co-authored "Representations of Shifted Yangians," through Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society. He has also co-written three important papers, including a 60-page paper in Advances in Mathematics. Kleshchev recently became the algebra editor for Transactions of the American Mathematical Society. He has received several National Science Foundation grants and is consistently ranked among the top teachers in the department. He has been on the UO faculty since 1995.

Alison Kwok, Professor of Architecture.
Alison Kwok is a recognized leader in sustainable design education. Her recent book, with W. Grondzik, "The Green Studio Handbook" (2007), develops guidelines for applying environmental strategies during the schematic design phase of green buildings. Kwok has been president of the Society of Building Science Educators and was elected to the executive committee of the national Architectural Research Centers Consortium (ARCC). She is the organizer of the ARCC research conference, "Green Challenges in Research, Practice, and Design Education," which will be held in Eugene April 16–18, 2007. Kwok holds a joint appointment in the department of architecture and the Center for Housing Innovation. She is a registered architect with research interests in design for the tropics, thermal comfort, passive cooling, building performance, and curriculum development. Her pioneering work with the "Agents of Change Project," is supported by the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education. Kwok has been a member of the UO faculty since 1998.

Massimo Lollini, Professor of Romance Languages.
The scope of Massimo Lollini's work is broad, ranging from the 18th century philosopher Giambattista Vico through contemporary testimonial literature. He is the author of two monographs, including the well-reviewed "Il vuoto della forma," and "Scriturra, testimonianza, e verità" (Genova: Maarietti 1820, 2001), for which he received the American Association for Italian Studies Book Award. He has co-edited five volumes, including the 2006 "Reason and Its Others: Italy, Spain and the New World (Vanderbilt University Press) and "Reading and Writing the Mediterranean: Essays" by Vincenzo Consolo (Toronto University Press). Lollini is currently at work on a book manuscript titled "Europe and the Autobiography of a Survivor: An essay on the European Idea of Autobiography." He has received the UO Thomas F. Herman Faculty Achievement Award for Distinguished Teaching and has been named to a second term as Hatzantonis Distinguished Fellow in Italian; he also received the UO Norman H. Brown Faculty Fellowship Award in Arts and Sciences. Lollini has been on the UO faculty since 1992.

W. Andrew Marcus, Professor of Geography.
W. Andrew Marcus works on disturbance impacts on the hydrology, geomorphology and riparian vegetation of streams and on methods for documenting and modeling those impacts. Much of this work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Yellowstone Park Foundation. Marcus was awarded the G.K. Gilbert Award for best research paper by the Geomorphology Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers in 2005. An excellent teacher, Marcus also has been a leader on campus and has an outstanding record of service to the university community, including serving as president of the University Senate in 2004-05. In fall term, 2006, he organized an international conference about human impacts on fluvial systems in the Binghamton Symposium Series, the longest running geomorphology conference series. Marcus has been a UO faculty member since 2001.

Christopher Minson, Associate Professor of Human Physiology.
Chris Minson investigates the neural and vascular interactions in the skin during environmental heat stress. This work has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. With support from the American Heart Association, Minson also is investigating how estrogen and progesterone impact blood pressure regulation in young women, with the goal of determining why young women are more susceptible to fainting than men. He received young investigator awards from the American Physiological Society in 2000 and the American College of Sports Medicine in 2002. Minson serves as vice president of the board of directors for the International Institute for Sport and Human Performance and as a reviewer for numerous journals, including the Journal of Applied Physiology, the American Journal of Physiology, Circulation, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, and the Journal of Physiology. An excellent teacher, Minson has mentored students who have taken academic and post-doctoral training positions at some of the finest institutions in the country. He has been on the UO faculty since 2000.

Michael Moffitt, Associate Professor of Law.
Michael Moffitt is one of the nation's leading dispute resolution experts. He has produced a number of path-breaking works on mediation and negotiation, including the award-winning "Handbook of Dispute Resolution." A former teacher at Harvard Law School and the Ohio State University College of Law, Moffitt joined the UO faculty in 2001 and has been awarded the university's Ersted Award and the law school's Orlando J. Hollis Faculty Teaching Award. He serves as associate director of the law school's Appropriate Dispute Resolution Center. He also resolves disputes throughout Oregon and the nation. His clients have ranged from senior judges to tribal leaders, from unionized prison guards to corporate executives, from national political leaders to diplomatic academy trainees. He serves as chair of the Association of American Law Schools' section on dispute resolution. He has been a UO faculty member since 2001.

Jeffrey Ostler, Professor of History.
Jeff Ostler works on Native American history and has published widely on 19th century political history, especially in the area of agrarian radicalism. His research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Oregon Humanities Center. Ostler's 2004 book, "The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee," won the Caughley Western History Association prize for the best book of 2004 in western U.S. History. A College of Arts and Sciences Bray Faculty Fellow in 2004, Ostler served as department head in history from 2003-06 and is an active member of the ethnic studies executive committee. He has been on the UO faculty since 1990.

Patrick C. Phillips, Professor of Biology.
Patrick Phillips works on empirical and theoretical studies of evolutionary genetics, ecology and behavior. This research was recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship this year and also has been supported by the National Science Foundation. A member of the Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Phillips has this year alone authored or jointly authored ten articles for prestigious journals such as Evolution and the Proceedings of the Royal Society. Phillips is widely recognized as an expert in the evolution of genetic architecture, and he is chair of the 2007 Gordon Conference on Quantitative Genetics and Genomics. In 2006, he was co-organizer of a European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) workshop on the evolutionary biology of C. elegans, the nematode species that is a model organism for both biomedical and evolutionary research. At the UO, Phillips has been a leader in collaborative projects that involved co-advising graduate students and played a lead role in securing and maintaining the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) in evolution, development, and genomics. Phillips has been a UO faculty member since 2000.

F. Regina Psaki, Professor of Romance Languages.
Regina Psaki works on Italian and French literature of the Middle Ages, with a focus on translation and feminist theory. She has published widely, including an edited collection of essays, "The Earthly Paradise: The Garden of Eden from Antiquity to Modernity," a co-edited collection, "Boccaccio and Feminist Criticism," an edited special volume of the journal Arthuriana, and, most significantly, the introduction and translation of the central early Arthurian narrative, "Tristano Riccardiano." This work is a significant addition to medieval scholarship and the third work of translation by Psaki. She has received numerous grants and awards in support of her research, including two UO Humanities Center Fellowships, a UO Summer Research Grant, The Sherl K. Coleman and Margaret E. Guitteau Professorship in the Humanities, and the William and Susan Piché Award in Arts and Sciences. Excelling as a teacher, Psaki has received the Thomas F. Herman Faculty Achievement Award for Distinguished Teaching, a Williams Council Faculty Award, and an Oregon Humanities Center Teaching Fellowship. Psaki has been on the UO faculty since 1989.

Milagro Vargas, Associate Professor of Voice.
One of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, Milagro Vargas received her training from the Oberlin College Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music. She was a soloist with the Stuttgart Opera from 1983-1992 and has sung roles with Opera de Paris Bastille, Berlin's Komische Oper, and Heidelberg Schlossfest. As a soloist, Vargas has appeared with the American Composer’s Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Beethoven Halle Orchestra, Residentie Orkest (the Hague), Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Honolulu Symphony and the Saint Luke's Chamber Orchestra. She has also performed in chamber music settings at summer festivals in Marlboro, Vt., and Aspen, Colo., plus Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, and in New York with concerts at Merkin Hall, the 92nd Street Y and Lincoln Center. She was a soloist for the world premier of Penderecki's "Credo" at the Oregon Bach Festival (Grammy-winning Hånssler recording) and can be heard on other recordings on the following labels: Harmonia Mundi, Teldec, CBS/Sony, and RM Arts. A frequently sought-after voice teacher at UO, her recent students have been Metropolitan Opera Regional Competition winners and full scholarship recipients to the Eastman School of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music. Vargas joined the faculty of the University of Oregon in 1992.