UW historian Jeremi Suri to receive outreach excellence award

The Wisconsin Alumni Association has selected University of Wisconsin–Madison history professor Jeremi Suri as the 2008 recipient of the Ken and Linda Ciriacks Faculty Outreach Excellence Award.

The award recognizes UW–Madison faculty members who go above and beyond their job roles to support the Wisconsin Idea and WAA by delivering a variety of enrichment or outreach programs to a primarily alumni audience.

Suri is the author of three books on contemporary politics and foreign policy: "Henry Kissinger and the American Century" (Harvard University Press, 2007); "The Global Revolutions of 1968" (2007); and "Power and Protest" (2003). In 2007, he was named among Smithsonian Magazine’s "37 Under 36: America’s Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences." His research and teaching have received numerous prizes, including the Phi Alpha Theta Best First Book Award and the Class of 1955 Distinguished Teaching Award from UW–Madison.

Suri has been a featured speaker to UW–Madison alumni audiences across the country, including recent events in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He has been involved with WAA’s Day on Campus program, Founders’ Day, and is currently hosting his second online alumni lifelong learning course titled "The United States and the World: The History of American Foreign Relations since 1941." The Wisconsin Alumni Lifelong Learning program is a partnership between WAA and UW–Madison’s Division of Continuing Studies.

"Professor Suri has traveled across the nation to engage alumni and friends through his enthusiastic study of history," says WAA President and CEO Paula Bonner. "He is a dynamic and sought-after speaker who shares his insight in the spirit of the Wisconsin Idea."

The $2,500 award is named for WAA members Ken Ciriacks ’58, one of the most active alumni in the history of WAA, and his wife, Linda. A geologist and former petroleum industry executive, Ken Ciriacks was a charter member of the geology department’s board of visitors and is a member of the Bascom Hill Society. His generosity helped make possible the excavation and reconstruction of the Geology Museum’s 33-foot-long Edmontosaurus dinosaur skeleton.

Suri will be honored at a Founders’ Day event hosted by the WAA Chicago Chapter on Thursday, May 1.