Milestones

Honored
Tonya Brito, an assistant professor of law, and Dionne Espinoza, assistant professor of women’s studies and Chicana/o studies, each have received an $8,000 Minority Faculty Research Award. The UW System Institute on Race and Ethnicity granted the awards, which are designed to release non-tenured faculty to conduct research for one semester. Brito’s research is titled “Does Law Matter? A Preliminary Study of Negotiating and Disputing in the Context of Open Adoption.” Espinoza’s work is titled “Typologies, Topographies, or Trajectories: The Roots (and Routes) of Chicana Feminisms, 1965-1980.”

Vanessa Northington Gamble, an associate professor of history of medicine, received a Category A Research Grant of $2,000 from the institute for her research, “Black Women Physicians in Twentieth Century America.”

The College of Engineering will honor four outstanding faculty and staff members during the 52nd annual Engineers’ Day Friday, Oct. 15. Raymond J. Fonck, a professor of engineering physics, will be presented with the Byron Bird Award for Excellence in a Research Publication. Sindo Kou, a professor of materials science and engineering, and Wei-Yin Loh, a statistics professor, each will receive the Benjamin Smith Reynolds Award for Excellence in Teaching. Karen A. Walsh, director of the Engineering Communications Office, will receive the Bollinger Academic Staff Distinguished Achievement Award.

Kristin Kearns, a research assistant in astronomy, and Mary Lee, a fellow in plant pathology, each received a 1999 Ruth Dickie Scholarship of $3,000 from the Graduate Women in Science Beta Chapter at UW–Madison. Cristina Lazaro-Perea, a research assistant in psychology, and Monica Remington, a graduate student in medical microbiology and immunology, each received a $500 Ruth Dickie Grant-in-Aid award.

Larry Rittenberg, professor and chair of the Business School’s Department of Accounting and Information Systems, was named vice president-elect/finance of the American Accounting Association.

Stephanie Robert, assistant professor of social work, has been chosen to participate in the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program of The Gerontological Society of America. She is one of 10 scholars nationally to receive a $100,000 grant designed to develop outstanding social work scholars committed to teaching, research and leadership in geriatric care. Robert will examine aspects of “Family Care,” Wisconsin’s new long-term care redesign program.

Gene Summers, professor emeritus, received the Distinguished Rural Sociologist award during the Rural Sociological Society’s 1999 annual meeting. The honor recognizes his career accomplishments in research, teaching, outreach and public policy. Fred Buttel, professor and chair of rural sociology, received an Award of Merit from the Society’s Natural Resources Research Group for his contributions to the theory of environmental sociology.

Published
Cynthia Miller, assistant professor of Hebrew and Semitic studies, recently edited and wrote the introductory chapter to a book of essays by international scholars, entitled “The Verbless Clause in Biblical Hebrew: Linguistic Approaches” (Eisenbrauns, 1999).

Steve Paddock, associate scientist in molecular biology, edited the book “Confocal Microscopy-Methods and Protocols” (Humana Press, 1998).