Awards, Honors, and Professorships

Biology Professor Wins Heinz Award for Work on the Environment

	Dee Boersma

University of Washington conservationist Dee Boersma is among 10 recipients of the Heinz Family Foundation awards, given to people whose achievements have fostered a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable world.

Each recipient will receive $100,000 and a medallion inscribed with the image of the late Senator John Heinz, whose environmental legacy is commemorated by the awards.

Boersma, professor of biology and Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science, is being honored for her extensive field study of penguins and other sea birds to promote conservation and understand human impact on marine environments.

For more than 25 years she has operated the Penguin Project, studying Magellanic penguins at the Punta Tombo reserve in Argentina. She has dubbed the penguins "marine sentinels" for their warning signs about the ocean environment.

Her recent work has shown that, because of climate change and other factors, during the critical period of egg incubation the penguins at Punta Tombo must swim an average of 25 miles further in search of food than they did just 10 years ago.

The Heinz Foundation also cited Boersma for launching Conservation Magazine, a publication she sees as building better public communication on issues of the natural world.

-- Vince Stricherz, UW News and Information

Linguistics Professor Honored for Online and Distance Learning Programs

Emily Bender has stretched her classroom’s boundaries, and her efforts have been recognized. Bender, assistant professor of linguistics, has been selected to receive the 2009 R1edu award for significant contributions to online and distance learning.

	Emily Bender

R1edu is a consortium of top U.S. research universities that pool their resources and knowledge to provide access to distance learning classes and reference materials. In addition to joint programmatic initiatives, R1edu honors one faculty member nationally each year for contributions in the field of distance learning. 

Bender launched an online pilot in 2007 for a graduate course in computational linguistics, using web conferencing as the course delivery method.  This led to an online certificate program in natural language technology the following year.  By next fall, Bender will offer an online option for delivery of the entire Computational Linguistics degree, opening the degree program to new audiences who are either geographically remote from the classroom or cannot otherwise attend afternoon courses on campus.

“With a family established in Oklahoma, it is less viable for me to relocate to complete a degree program not offered in my state,” says one online student from Oklahoma. “This program offers me exactly what I need, and precisely what I cannot obtain here." The student notes another advantage: “The ability to go back and replay lectures that I attended either in class or from home was a tremendous advantage. I am convinced that I would not have fared as well in the course had these things not been available."

Bender hears similar comments from local students who appreciate the online infrastructure. "We have students who work full-time on the Eastside and can't drive across the lake midday, and students who need to stay home occasionally to take care of a sick kid," says Bender. "It also means that we are very well prepared for any disruptions caused by swine flu!"

Other Awards, Honors, and Professorships

Linda Bierds, professor of English, was renewed as Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood Professor of the Humanities.

Herbert Blau, professor of English, was renewed as Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood Professor of the Humanities.

Richard T. Gray, professor of Germanics, was renewed as Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood Professor of the Humanities.

Christian Lee Novetzke, assistant professor of international studies, is recipient of the Best First Book in the History of Religions Award from the American Academy of Religion for his book, Religion and Public Memory: A Cultural History of Saint Namdev in India, published by Columbia University Press in 2008. For additional details regarding this book, see: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14184-0/religion-and-public-memory. 

Henry Staten, professor of English and comparative literature, was renewed as Byron W. and Alice L. Lockwood Professor of the Humanities.

Carol Thomas, professor of history, is the first recipient of the Dr. Nick and Nancy Vidalakis Family Professorship in Culture, Excellence and Spirituality in Hellenic Studies.

Return to Table of Contents, September 2009 issue