Four faculty receive 2002 WARF mid-career awards

Four professors have received Kellett Mid-Career Awards that promote the continued scholarly efforts of established faculty.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation sponsors the $60,000 awards, one of several annual programs supported each year by WARF’s block grant to the university. Candidates must be between five and 20 years past their first promotion to a tenured position.

Winners are chosen by a committee of the UW–Madison Graduate School. The award is named after William R. Kellett, a former president of the WARF Board of Trustees and retired president of Kimberly Clark Corp.

• David C. Schwartz, professor, genetics, is internationally recognized as one of the leading figures in the Human Genome Project. He is highly regarded for his outstanding contributions to the field of genomics, including the development of pulsed-field electrophoresis, optical mapping technologies and the systems required to analyze the complex genetic data. Colleagues commend Schwartz as highly creative, productive, and likely to revolutionize the field of genomics. Schwartz provides service to the campus community, maintains a remarkable funding record, and has started his own company OpGen.
• David J. Sorkin, professor, history, is the author of three books and co-editor of two, has held grants from the British Academy and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has served as director of the Center for Jewish Studies (1993-98). He teaches courses in Modern Jewish history, and European cultural and religious history.
• Dieter Zeppenfeld, professor, physics, one of the world’s leading physicists in theoretical particle physics and collider phenomenology, is applying quantum field theory to probe the forces at the smallest distance scales. He laid the foundations to test weak-gauge-boson self-interactions in electron-positron collisions. His recent work on producing and studying the Higgs boson at the Large-Hadron-Collider has revolutionized the search strategies for this particle that is believed to explain the origin of mass. Beyond research, he is a popular teacher of graduate courses.
• Patricia G. Devine, professor, psychology, studies how people manage the intrapersonal and interpersonal challenges associated with prejudice in contemporary society. Devine also has programs of research on dissonance-related phenomena and the processes involved in resisting persuasion.