Nov. 2, 2010 - Top leaders among UNT faculty were honored Tuesday afternoon at the annual UNT Research Reception and Awards Ceremony hosted by Vice President for Research Vish Prasad and the Office of Research and Economic Development. The event recognizes those research scientists, scholars, engineers and artists who show exceptional accomplishment for their research contributions. Awards include a cash prize and a personal, commemorative plaque, and the names of all awardees will additionally be inscribed on a UNT-maintained plaque to commemorate these accomplishment into the future.
Faculty across campus were nominated and evaluated for potential awards in five categories: 1) Competitive Funding Award, 2) Early Career Award for Research and Creativity, 3) Teacher Scholar Award, 4) Creative Impact Award, and 5) Research Leadership Award.
The Competitive Funding Award is given to the PI who was responsible for the highest total amount of newly-awarded competitive research funding during the previous fiscal year. The three finalists for the award were Yunfei Du, Library and Information Sciences; Su Gao, Mathematics; and Jeffry Kelber, Chemistry.
The winner of the Competitive Funding award is Dr. Jeff Kelber, Regents Professor of Chemistry. Dr. Kelber is respected among science peers worldwide for both applied and fundamental research in the field of semiconductor research and in atomic level chemistry and surface science. He was selected recently by the Semiconductor Research Corporation — the world’s leading university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies —to establish and direct the Center for Electronic Materials Processing and Integration, CEMPI. As director of the center, Dr. Kelber works with a team of leading world experts from research universities and institutes across the U.S. to advance understanding of plasma processes and insulators used in manufacturing state-of-the-art semiconductor chips. This year Dr. Kelber brought in new awards totaling over 1 million, six hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
The Early Career Award for Research and Creativity recognizes a faculty member within her/his first 10 years in a tenure-track faculty appointment whose research accomplishments or creative endeavors have been truly outstanding. The three finalists for the Early Career Award were Cheng Yu, Engineering Technology; Pamela Padilla, Biological Sciences; and Srinivasan Srivilliputhur, Materials Science and Engineering.
The award was given to Pamela Padilla, associate professor of Biology whose innovative research in oxygen deprivation has made important contributions to many human health related issues, including cardiovascular dysfunction, blood loss due to trauma, pulmonary dysfunction and solid tumor progression. Dr. Padilla has established an impressive track record of securing highly competitive grants, including an R01 grant from NIH and the prestigious CAREER Award from NSF. In addition to an extensive publication list, including many in top journals such as Science, she is sought as a visiting scientist, lecturer, and scholar by prestigious universities and institutes nationwide. A dedicated mentor to students of all levels, Dr. Padilla received the 2010 Outstanding Mentor award for her work with TAMS students — one of many examples of her commitment to the UNT community.
The Teacher Scholar Award honors the mid-career faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in research or creative productivity while also performing in an extraordinary manner as a teacher. The three finalists for this award were: Rebecca Dickstein, Biological Sciences; David McEntire, Public Administration; and Dee Ray, Counseling.
The winner of the 2010 Teacher Scholar Award is Dee Ray, professor of Counseling and Director of the Child and Family Resource Clinic. Dr. Ray is recognized as a leading scholar in the field of child-centered play therapy, adult-child relationships and counselor education. Her involvement with students underscores her role as teacher as well as scholar. Dr. Ray has played a seminal role in the development and curriculum of the College of Education Counseling doctoral program. And she has created many opportunities for students to conduct their dissertation studies and gain professional experience in various settings, including schools and the family clinic, where she is responsible for their training, supervision and evaluation.
The Creative Impact Award is designed to honor the faculty member whose work in the literary or creative arts has had the greatest societal impact. The two finalists for the 2010 Creative Impact Award were: Bruce Bond, English; and Jon Nelson, Music Composition.
Bruce Bond, Regents Professor of English, won this award. Dr. Bond’s poems, essays, articles and books are published by some of the most respected names in literary publishing, among them the Sewanee Review, the Paris Review, The American Literary Review, the Yale Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, Etruscan Press and Louisiana State University Press. His seven full-length poetry books have garnered international recognition, and he has received more than two-dozen important awards, with nominations for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the Pushcart and National Book Award in Poetry — the highest awards available in the field of creative writing. Important writers of our times praise Bond for the perceptions he shares through his work.
The Research Leadership Award recognizes the veteran UNT faculty member whose research excellence and leadership at UNT has made substantial contributions and has achieved national/international recognition. The 2010 Research Leadership Award finalists were: Samuel Atkinson, Biological Sciences; Wes Borden, Chemistry; and Mohammad Omary, Chemistry.
Winner of the Research Leadership Award went to Wes Borden, Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry and the inaugural Robert A. Welch Chair of Chemistry at UNT. Dr. Borden is recognized by international peers as being one of the world’s leading experts in computational organic chemistry and molecular orbital theory. He was named a Cope Scholar by the American Chemical Society, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Chemical Society, and, most recently, is this year’s recipient of the highly prestigious ACS James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry. He was a Fulbright Scholar and is the recipient of a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Japan Society for Promotion of Science Fellowship and a Humboldt Senior Scientist Research Award. Since 1999 he has served as associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society – one of the most respected science journals in the world.
The Office of Research additionally presented a certificate for Special Recognition for Technology Development that recognizes those research discoveries that spawn technological developments of value to society and UNT through the sale or licensing of patent rights on those discoveries. This certificate was given to professor of biochemistry, Kent Chapman. Dr. Chapman has multiple patents issued or pending for a variety of work including enhancing the quality of cotton, increasing the production of useful plant fibers, genetically controlling lipid accumulation in plants, and extending the freshness of cut flowers and ornamental trees.
Top External Funding Recipients for Fiscal Year 2010
UNT Office of Research and Economic Development
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