Awards round-up

Three named Guggenheim Fellows
Three faculty have been awarded prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships: Jill Banfield, professor of geology and geophysics; Robert J. Hamers, professor of chemistry; and Thomas W. Reps, professor of computer science.

The awards are based on achievement in the past and promise for future accomplishment. Recommendations from hundreds of expert advisers were considered and approved by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation’s Board of Trustees, which includes former fellows such as UW alumna Joyce Carol Oates.

The average award this year is $35,800.

Banfield, who also received a MacArthur “genius grant” last year, was selected for her research in microbe-mineral interactions of environmental importance. Banfield and Hamers joined the faculty in 1990.

Hamers, the Evan P. Helfaer Professor of Chemistry, was chosen to receive a Guggenheim fellowship for his studies in molecular electronics.

A member of the computer science faculty since 1985, Reps was nominated for his work on a “new compressed representation of Boolean functions.” The fellowship will be used to support his work during a sabbatical next year in Pisa, Italy, where he will carry out research at the Istituto di Elaborazione della Informazione at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, a government research institute, as well as at the Dipartimento di Informatica of the University of Pisa.

Polygon awards announced
Polygon Engineering Council, the engineering college council of student organizations, recently announced their annual teaching excellence award winners. Undergraduates voted to determine the awards. The faculty winners, listed by discipline, are: Biomedical Engineering, John Webster; Chemical Engineering, Thatcher Root; Civil and Environmental Engineering, Jeffrey Russell; Electrical and Computer Engineering, John Booske; Engineering Physics, Robert Witt; Engineering Professional Development, Thomas McGlamery; Industrial Engineering, Stephen Robinson; Materials Science and Engineering, Jay Samuel; Mechanical Engineering, Fred Reames.

Teaching Assistants, listed by discipline, are: Biomedical Engineering, Hong Cao; Chemical Engineering, Andy Horvath; Civil and Environmental Engineering, Seth Johnson; Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sheila Ross Engineering Physics, Peter Laux; Industrial Engineering, Karndee Leopairote; Material Science and Engineering, Oscar Marcelo Suarez; Mechanical Engineering, Bruce Stott.

Story wins Steuber Prize
Kostyn Khripin has received the $5,000 Steuber Prize for Excellence in Writing. His story, “Cathedral of Marble Strands,” explores life and death in a virtual world. Second place and $3,000 went to Thomas Drew for “Engineered Art,” a paper exploring art and engineering in the design and construction of bridges. A tie for third place awarded $1,000 each to Sean Weitner for his paper “Morris Fuller Benton, Faces of the American Spirit” and Charles Christenson for “Redefining Progress.”

William Steuber, a UW–Madison alumnus, sponsors the prizes for undergraduates in the College of Engineering. The contest is now in its ninth year. The winning papers will be available this month by visiting: http://tc.engr.wisc.edu/steuber/.