Boersma Selected for Aldo Leopold Leadership Program
Jory Lauded for His "Unique Contribution to Theatre"
Werner Finishes Second in 135 Mile Ultra-Marathon
Listing of Additional A&S Awards and Honors

Boersma Selected for Aldo Leopold Leadership Program

Dee Boersma

For nearly 20 years, Dee Boersma has been studying Magellanic penguins in Argentina and sharing her data with local officials, environmental organizations, and fishers in an effort to protect the penguins. Now she’ll have an opportunity to communicate even more effectively as a Leopold Leadership Fellow.

Boersma is one of 20 prominent scientific experts selected by the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program as fellows. “What the Leopold Fellowship does is provide training so scientists learn how to better present information in everything from interviews with reporters to congressional testimony,” says Boersma. The Program will select a total of 60 fellows over three years.

Boersma will undoubtedly put this training to good use. In addition to directing the Magellanic Penguin Project at Punta Tombo, Argentina for the Wildlife Conservation Society, she recently served as president of the Society for Conservation Biology. Currently she is leading a national review of the Fish and Wildlife Service recovery plan for the Society. She also is the Executive Editor of Conservation Biology in Practice, a new journal designed to help bridge the gap between academic and practicing conservation biologists.

Jory Lauded for His ”Unique Contribution to Theatre”
When Jon Jory received New York’s Drama League award for Unique Contribution to the Theatre for 2000, it was the latest in a long list of awards for the acclaimed director.

Jory was the producing director at the Actors Theatre of Louisville for 31 years before coming to the UW as a professor of acting and directing in September 2000. During his years with Actors Theatre of Louisville, he directed more than 90 plays and produced more than 1,000.

	Jon Jory

Throughout his career, Jory has devoted his energy to the rebirth of the regional repertory and excellence in all facets of production, but especially to the encouragement of new writers and the production of new American plays. As founder of the Humana Festival of New American Plays, he has been responsible for the production of hundreds of new works, directing 31 world premieres in full production himself. He has received dozens of awards, including—with Actors Theatre of Louisville—the Special Tony Award for Achievement in Regional Theatre.

Now Jory is ready to bring his years of experience to UW students interested in acting and directing. “I have looked for a place where I can work with the highest caliber, like-minded people to pass on what I’ve learned to the next generation,” Jory explains. “I have found it here, at the University of Washington School of Drama. In the years to come, I hope to help prepare a new generation of directors and actors with first-rate skills, a working knowledge of the profession, and a sense that the theatre expands the heart and mind of those who do and those who see.”

Jon Jory will inaugurate his UW professorial career by directing Dylan Thomas’ Under Milkwood at the University’s Playhouse Theatre in April 2001.

Werner Finishes Second in 135 Mile Ultra-Marathon
Next time you’re feeling achy after a jog around Green Lake, ponder Lynne Werner’s latest achievement. Werner, professor of speech and hearing sciences, finished second among women and twelfth overall in the Badwater Ultra-Marathon in late July. The race covered 135 miles, with 13,000 feet of elevation gain and temperatures nearing 130 degrees.

As if that weren’t enough, Werner, who normally wears a women’s size 7 shoe, ran the last 30 miles of the race wearing her husband’s size 11 shoes. She laced up the relatively spacious footwear after developing blisters from a pair of shoes that turned out to be too tight. “It didn’t slow me down too much,” she says.

By finishing 12th overall in a time of 41 hours, 14 minutes and 57 seconds, Werner bettered Lisa Smith, a former women’s Badwater champion, and the other three runners—all men—from the Northwest who competed. “I’m really thrilled about it,” she says. “I’m a little surprised I finished as well as I did.”

Not that she wasn’t prepared. Werner trained for the desert heat by running 16 miles or more in the summer wearing layers that would cause most runners to sweat profusely in chilly December: fleece and Gore-Tex jackets zipped tightly over layers of running tights, long-sleeved shirts and sweat suits.

Werner took up running in 1982 to break her smoking habit. (It worked.) “I’d try to run and walk the block around our house,” Werner recalls. “...Before I knew it, one day I ran 10 miles and it didn’t seem that hard.” She completed her first marathon in 1983 and turned to ultra-marathons when she found herself bored with the typical 26.2-mile jaunts.

“I’m doing something I enjoy, so it’s just natural for me to keep challenging myself and to try new things,” says Werner. “When I run I can’t think about work for very long. Running forces me to stop worrying about stuff.”

Additional Awards, Honors, and Professorships

Eliot Brenowitz, professor of psychology and zoology, has been named a Virginia Merrill Bloedel Scholar. The scholarship is a three-year award.

Charles Campbell, professor of chemistry, has received the American Chemical Society’s Award in Colloid or Surface Chemistry.

Peter Eros, professor of music, has been reappointed to the Aura Bonnell Morrison Professorship in Music.

John Findlay, professor of history, received the Governor’s Award from the Washington State Historical Society. He was honored for editing Pacific Northwest Quarterly, founding the Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, and creating a Web site that provides curriculum for secondary teachers and students.

Leland Hartwell, president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and professor of genetics, has been named recipient of the 2000 Massry Prize for his cell-cycle research. The award honors those who have made outstanding contributions to biomedical sciences and the advancement of health.

Estella Leopold, professor of botany, has been elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society, a learned society devoted to the advancement of scientific and scholarly inquiry.

Margaret Levi, professor of political science and Harry Bridges Chair Emeritus in Labor Studies, has been appointed to the Jere L. Bacharach Professorship in International Studies.

R. Tracy McKenzie, associate professor of history, has been chosen as the first Howard Keller Professor of History. The appointment is for a three-year term.

Cecilia Moens, affiliate assistant professor of zoology, has received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, which honors outstanding scientists and engineers at the outset of their independent research careers.

Frederick J. Newmeyer, professor of linguistics, has been nominated to be president of the Linguistic Society of America, the primary linguistic society in the U.S. He also has been named Katz Lecturer.

Kathleen Noble, newly appointed director of The Robinson Center for Young Scholars, has been named Halbert and Nancy Robinson Endowed Professor.

Robert Paine, professor emeritus of zoology, has received the 2000 Eminent Ecologist Award—the most prestigious award given by the Ecological Society of America.

Charles Raymond, professor of geophysics, has received the Seligman Crystal from the International Glaciological Society. The award is given in recognition of a glaciologist’s career scientific achievements.

Lynn Riddiford, professor of zoology, has been named Virginia and Prentice Bloedel Professor and has been elected chair of the Council for the International Congresses of Entomology.

Catherine Sanok, assistant professor of English, received the Van Courtlandt Elliott Prize from the Medieval Society of America for an outstanding article in the field.

Ching-hsien Wang has received the Taiwan National Literature Prize, presented by the National Foundation for Literature and Arts. This is the highest prize bestowed by the Taiwanese government in the fields of literature, dance, painting, music, and opera. Awards were presented in September by the president of Taiwan.

Younan Xia, assistant professor of chemistry, has been named a David and Lucille Packard Fellow for 2000. The fellowships were established “to allow the nation’s most promising young professors to pursue their science and engineering research with few funding restrictions.”

[Autumn 2000 - Table of Contents]