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MSU honors top faculty
May 04, 2006 -- from MSU News Service
BOZEMAN -- Dedicated teachers, dynamic researchers and faculty devoted to the betterment of Montana are among the winners of the top Montana State University 2006 faculty awards announced this week. The annual awards honor achievement in faculty research, teaching, outreach and creative projects. The awards will be presented at the University Honors Banquet.
The Cox Family Faculty Excellence Award
Dana Longcope, professor of physics, John Marsh, an ag economics and economics professor, and Walter Metz, a professor of media and theatre arts, are the recipients of the 2006 Cox Family Family Excellence Award. Each will receive a $2,000 honorarium from the Winston and Helen Cox Family Endowment as well as an $800 stipend to be used to purchase books dedicated in their honor at MSU's Renne Library.
Longcope is a national leader in organizing and administering solar physics research. He is the principal architect of the key physical theory that explains energetic solar phenomenon. Developments from that work are said to have enormous impact, both at the academic levels and the design of future NASA missions. He received MSU's Wiley Award in 2003 and won the NSF Early Career Development Award in 1997, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2000, the Karen Harvey Prize in 2003 and the Phillip D. Thompson Lectureship in 2004.
Marsh is a leading researcher on cattle and beef markets who is also a master teacher. He has received 10 outstanding teaching awards from national and local student and professional organizations. Every year for the past 20 years, his students have given him such outstanding evaluations that his department head terms him a "superstar instructor." His research ranges from studies of the impact of changing patterns of consumer demand published in the premier journal of agricultural economics to issues of country-of-origin labeling and market concentration.
Metz is a film scholar and accomplished teacher. The winner of a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to the John F. Kennedy Institute in Berlin in 2003, Metz has published one book on film criticism and contemporary American cinema and has three more books under contract on topics that range from drama in the mass media to German film adaptation. He has also published several more articles and film reviews on a wide range of topics. He teaches lower and upper division as well as graduate courses and lectures widely.
Wiley Awards for meritorious research
Dennis Aig, professor of media and theatre arts, John Peters, a chemistry professor, and Brett Walker, a professor of history, have won this year's Charles and Nora L. Wiley Faculty Awards for Meritorious Research and Creativity. Each will each receive $2,000. Sponsored by the MSU Foundation, the prizes are given in honor of the Wileys, who were pioneer ranchers in eastern Montana.
Aig is a nationally recognized filmmaker who incorporates hands-on training with teaching. Recently, Aig and a crew of MSU students filmed a three-hour documentary about the recovery of a World War II U-Boat sunk off the Gulf of Mexico. He directed MSU student crews that filmed "The Making of A River Runs Through It" and "Visions of Grace: Robert Redford and The Horse Whisperer." Aig also has supervised the work of MSU student interns in several feature films and television programs shot in Montana. Aig has won scores of awards for his films including a Golden Hugo and 13 Tellys.
Peters has distinguished himself nationally and internationally in the fields of structural biology and biochemistry. He is known for his energy and innovation as a scientist, as well as his teaching and service. He is interim director of MSU's Thermal Biology Institute and section-director in MSU's Center for Bio-Inspired Nanomaterials. A rising star in structural biology, he has written more than 50 scientific papers, many of which have appeared in the most prestigious journals.
Walker is one of the top Japanese historians in the U.S. Although at an early stage in his career, he is considered one of the most outstanding scholars to be working on early modern Japanese history. Two of Walker's books have appeared in print during the last year, one of them a leading candidate for an international award as the best book in environmental history. Walker has researched the Ainu people of Japan and used his extensive study and observation of North American wolves to gain insight into Japan's extinct wolves.
The James and Mary Ross Provost's Award for teaching and scholarship
Laurence Carucci, sociology and anthropology, and Nancy Dodd, business, are the recipients of the James and Mary Ross Provost's Award for Excellence. Each will receive a $2,500 honorarium for the award. In its seventh year, the Provost's Award recognizes excellence in teaching and scholarship.
Carucci is a specialist in the study of Pacific Island societies, particularly the Marshall Islands, for which he is one of the only anthropologists working today. He incorporates MSU students into his fieldwork, teaching them about research first-hand. He has written or co-written six books in the field of cultural anthropology and ethnography. He has also written more than three-dozen articles, book chapters and reviews. Carucci helped reform MSU's core education curriculum. Carucci has won several teaching awards including the Fridley Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005.
Dodd, a professor of management, is the founder of a freshmen business seminar, which transformed the manner of teaching to MSU freshmen. Dodd is a consistent winner of MSU teaching awards. She has written or co-written scores of articles about management and leadership issues. She is a consultant on management issues and is also the director of the MSU Family Business Center and serves as the university ombudsman.
Provost's Excellence in Outreach Award
Marsha Goetting, agriculture economics and MSU Extension, and Perry Miller, land resources and environmental sciences, have been selected as the 2006 recipients of MSU's Provost's Excellence in Outreach Award. Each will receive a $2,000 honorarium.
Goetting is a professor of economics and an Extension specialist on issues of personal and family finance, estate planning and financial planning, specializing in the transfer of assets between generations. Her writings have been published in scores of professional journals, and journalists nationwide seek out her opinions. Last year alone, Goetting taught 47 classes statewide and secured more than $175,000 used to teach Montanans about credit, estate planning and asset management. Among her most popular projects are her Saving Starter Kit and Get Smart About Credit Kit. She has won several national, regional and local awards for her work.
Miller is a professor of land resources and a cropping systems researcher. As ag producers' need for cropping alternatives has grown, Miller's research programs have provided more information, making him a popular speaker. He has logged more than 8,000 hours in addressing more than 90 groups over the past several years, as well as chairing international meetings of professional associations. His research and practical knowledge on "pulse crops," those that take nitrogen from the air and add it to the soil, are increasingly important to Montana producers.
Provost's Award for Undergraduate Research/Creativity Mentoring
Wade Hill, nursing, and Kevin Repasky, electrical and computer engineering, have won the 2006 Provost's Award for Undergraduate Research/Creativity Mentoring. They will each receive a $2,000 honorarium.
Despite being a new faculty member, Hill has quickly assumed a mentoring role for his students and has consistently involved his undergraduate students in his research activities. He has demonstrated an interest in developing the individual student's potential through intellectual challenges. Hill is involved in research involving reducing environmental risk to rural, low-income families.
Repasky works with undergraduate researchers several hours a week in addition to his full-time research and teaching responsibilities. Five undergraduate students are involved in Repasky's lab, where they examine applications of optical science and technology to problems in electrical engineering. Three of his former students, now alumni, are employed by Montana companies in the optical and solid-state materials field, based in no small part on their research involvement with Repasky as undergraduates.
The Meritorious Technology/Science Award
Rufus Cone, physics, is the 2006 recipient of MSU's Meritorious Technology/Science Award. The award carries a $2,500 honorarium and recognizes an MSU faculty member who has made at least one significant technological or scientific contribution that could be transferred or already has been transferred to the private sector.
While Cone's scientific contributions go back several decades, his 15-year collaboration with Scientific Materials Corp. in Bozeman has had a tremendous impact on that company and a revolutionary impact on the field worldwide. Cone's achievement is not only in technology transfer, but also in strengthening Montana's high-tech economy. He has also initiated and led the growth of optical science at MSU. His presence is a key reason for the vibrant set of laser optics companies now in the Gallatin Valley. When Scientific Materials was founded in 1989, it focused completely on laser crystals. The opportunity to participate in spectral hole burning arose through interaction with Cone's research group several years later. Cone's contacts at NASA led to several Montana Space Grant Consortium and NASA EPSCoR programs at MSU.
President's Excellence in Teaching Award
Sustained excellence in teaching characterize the recipients of the 2006 President's Excellence in Teaching Award. Professors Ilse-Mari Lee, music, Dan Moshavi, business, and Regents' Professor John Carlsten, physics, each will receive a $2,500 honorarium.
More than a master teacher, Carlsten is known as a genius, one of the superstars of the physics department and an educator who makes house calls. Students in both large introductory classes as well as smaller, upper-division classes often give him perfect evaluations. He is a gentleman who is patient and accommodating of his students' circumstances. An effective communicator who has livened-up his classroom with pushups and Power Point, his advice is often sought by fellow teachers. He has graduated more doctoral students per year than any other member of the physics department and is also noted for academic excellence, classroom presence and overall concern for students.
Lee is a cellist of international reputation as well as an exceptional teacher. She maintains the largest number of music majors and non-majors who study her instrument in the MSU Music Department. Her MSU Cello Ensemble has toured in Europe and China, performing many challenging works, including several composed by Lee. She has also been a leader in creating a center for digital collaboration in the arts, helping secure a grant to launch the College of Arts and Architecture Creative Research Lab.
Moshavi is a master teacher, using techniques of self-analysis, personal portfolios and case studies to teach students about themselves and the field of management. Moshavi uses the tools of improvisation, wit, positive regard and personal background to facilitate team building, learning and creativity to his students. Those techniques have earned not only high student evaluations but also several MSU teaching awards. Moshavi also worked with MSU Career Services to design "Career Peers," in which students interested in human resources train with Career Services staff.
Betty Coffey Award for achievement in elimination of barriers to the success of women
Kay Chafey, professor of nursing, will receive the Betty Coffey Award. The award was established in memory of Betty Coffey, an engineering professor from 1977-1984 who was noted for her teaching excellence and her contributions to women's equity. Chafey has championed female students, particularly Native American students, in the College of Nursing, by establishing Caring for Our Own, a program that recruits Native American students for the nursing profession, mentors them and prepares them for national board exams and employment. The program has helped increase the percentage of Native American nursing students from 2.8 percent to 10 percent. The Bureau of Health Professions has twice selected the program as a top example of minority health education. Chafey has also worked for salary equity for MSU professionals.
Phi Kappa Phi Award
Michael Miles, director of the University Honors Program, received the Anna K. Fridley Distinguished Teaching Award given by Phi Kappa Phi honorary. Miles helped develop the MSU Origins class for University Honors students. The course, team-taught by Miles, paleontologist Jack Horner and physicist Neil Cornish, is a highly popular class that explores the origins of the earth, the universe, humanities and religious thought. Miles also works to recruit, cultivate and mentor MSU applicants for coveted national academic awards, including the Goldwater, Rhodes and Marshall scholarships. He also works to design curriculum for University Honors courses. Miles sits on the board of trustees for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation and is a writer with one book and several published articles in professional and literary journals.
Contact: Pat Chansley (406) 994-4373, chansley@montana.edu
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