Beth Bachmann, assistant professor of English, has won the Poetry Society of America’s 2011 Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award for a manuscript in progress.
Assistant Professor of Physics Kirill Bolotin has received a Faculty Early Career Development award from the National Science Foundation. The five-year award supports exploration into the conductivity of graphene, a recently discovered material that conducts electricity better than copper, has mechanical strength greater than steel and can be patterned into structures smaller than a virus.
Professor of Physics David Ernst has won the 2011 Distinguished Professional Mentor Award from the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).
Steven D. Hollon, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology, has received the 2011 Florence Halpern Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Clinical Psychology from the Society of Clinical Psychology—APA Division 12.
McLean with students
John McLean, assistant professor of chemistry, was recognized for excellence in teaching by Vanderbilt student members of the American Chemical Society.
The American Council of Learned Societies announced Elizabeth Shih Meadows, MA’06, PhD’10, lecturer in English, was named to the ACLS New Faculty Fellows Program for 2011 and that Edward N. Wright-Rios, associate professor of history, was awarded an ACLS 2011 Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowship. ACLS is a private, nonprofit federation of 71 national scholarly organizations.
Randall
Alice Randall, writer-in-residence in African American and diaspora studies, was invited to spend a month at the famed Yaddo artists’ community in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Randall used the residency to revise her fourth novel, inFATuation, which draws on her research into soul food and research being done at Vanderbilt on personalized medicine. James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Langston Hughes and other distinguished writers have also served residencies at Yaddo.
Furbish
Three Arts and Science faculty members were called to the podium to receive awards from Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos during Vanderbilt‘s Spring Faculty Assembly. Robert Barsky, professor of French and comparative literature, was awarded the Alexander Heard Distinguished Service Professor Award. David Furbish, professor of Earth and environmental sciences, received the Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award. Bunmi Olatunji, associate professor of psychology, received the Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching. This award is determined by the chancellor based on nominations from students.
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Barbara Tsakirgis, (right) associate professor of classics and history of art, was presented with the Vanderbilt University Alumni Association Alumni Education Award. The award is given annually by the association’s board of directors to a full-time faculty member who has contributed substantially to alumni education programs. She received the award during a surprise classroom visit by, from left, Associate Vice Chancellor for Alumni Relations James Stofan, Dean Carolyn Dever, and Alumni Association board member Elizabeth Clarke Gerken, BE’90, MBA’92.
