Romnes awards go to seven UW professors

Seven faculty have received 2001 Romnes Fellowships, a program that helps younger faculty further establish their scholarly careers.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation supports the $50,000 fellowships. A committee of the Graduate School chooses the recipients. The Romnes award recognizes an exceptional faculty member who has attained tenure within the prior four years.

The awards are named after the late H.I. Romnes, former chair of the board of AT&T and former president of the WARF Board of Trustees. This year’s winners are:

Kathy Barton, associate professor of genetics. Barton is acclaimed for her strong commitment to teaching, her outstanding service at the university and national levels, and her world-class research program on regulatory genes in Arabidopsis. Barton is characterized as a “fearless soul” for undertaking her research on embryonic plant meristem cells, finding genes that contribute to the development of this tissue. Moreover, she has been lauded for her presence as an exceptional role model in the sciences.

Mitchell Duneier, associate professor of sociology. Duneier is an ethnographer working in the Chicago tradition of urban sociology. His scholarship, based on participant observation carried out over many years, chronicles the world of poor black men and women in America’s inner cities. His overarching theme is the maintenance and regulation of moral community among the working poor. His books, “Slim’s Table” (1994) and “Sidewalk” (1999), have received numerous scholarly and media awards.

Aristotle Georgiades, associate professor of art. His research involves two main avenues. One concerns the more traditional approaches to being an artist involved with commercial galleries and not-for-profit exhibition venues. The other pursuit is in public art, which usually involves commissioned work for specific sites with public access. His courses on the public domain contrast issues of public art with those of art for galleries and museums. He serves on the executive committee of the Arts Institute, the visiting artists committee of the art department and various faculty search committees.

Tao Han, associate professor of physics. Han is a member of the physics department’s Phenomenology Institute and is a world leader in collider physics. His theoretical research focuses on fundamental issues of particle physics – a Higgs particle as the origin of mass, the search for supersymmetry and the experimental consequences of extra dimensions of space-time. His teaching and service have been exemplary.

Kathryn Hendley, associate professor of law and political science and the director of the Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia. Hendley is the only American social scientist who has been undertaking careful, systematic case studies of Russian enterprises in transition. She is fluent in Russian and applies the highest level of legal and political analytical skills to her research. She has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council and other organizations. Her published scholarly work includes the book “Trying to Make Law Matter” and more than 30 articles.

Laura L. Kiessling, professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Kiessling has played a high-profile role in elucidating the significance of multivalency (multiple contacts) in biological information transfer (e.g., intercellular communication, bacterial chemotaxis). Kiessling has also developed a new strategy for controlling the protein aggregation that underlies Alzheimer’s disease. An outstanding campus citizen, Kiessling has played leading roles in creating the chemical biology sesquicentennial hiring cluster and the new Keck Center for Chemical Genomics.

David Mladenoff, associate professor of forest ecology and management. Mladenoff’s research promotes greater understanding of human influences on managed forest ecosystems, focusing on large scales, in the new area of forest landscape ecology. His work contains some of the best studies of the relationships of human land use and natural processes driving forest landscape change, often using new spatial analysis tools such as geographic information systems and computer simulation models.