|
The
best investment a university can make is in its faculty.
Not only do faculty members discover new knowledge that
can improve the quality of life of millions of people, but
each one educates and inspires thousands of students over
the course of his or her career. U.Va. has done remarkably
well attracting and retaining some of the most admired and
well-respected faculty in the nation, if not the world.
Even more noteworthy is the exceptional range of the faculty's
excellence, which spans departments and schools across the
Grounds.
Senior
faculty members from around the University were elected
fellows this year of our nation's most exclusive learned
societies. Donald F. Hunt, University Professor of chemistry
and pathology, Richard C. McCarty, professor of psychology,
and Andrew P. Somlyo, the Charles Slaughter Professor of
Molecular Physiology and Biology, were named as fellows
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
|
 |
|
|
| Lanterns
were installed on the Lawn for one night in October
1999 by a Japanese exchange student as her final art
project. |
|
The
caliber of research being done by faculty at the University
Health System was also recognized by a number of awards.
U.Va. cell biologist John C. Herr was named Outstanding
Scientist of 2000, one of two top scientists in Virginia
to be given the award. Herr's research, focusing on the
biology of the sperm, has led to the development of the
Þrst patented home-diagnostic tests for male fertility.
Ronald P. Taylor, professor of biochemistry and molecular
genetics, was named by the U.Va. Patent Foundation as the
Christopher J. Henderson Inventor of the Year. He is recognized
for his research into the treatment of diseases associated
with pathogens in the bloodstream.
|
Dr.
George Beller, chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine,
was installed as president of the American College of Cardiology.
In
the School of Nursing, Barbara Parker was the recipient
of the 2000 Distinguished Researcher Award by the Southern Nursing
Research Society. Parker has led a number of projects exploring
the issue of violence during pregnancy.
|
Curry
School professor Daniel Hallahan was presented this
year's Special Education Research Award by the Council for
Exceptional Children. Hallahan is founder of the Learning
Disabilities Research Institute and coauthor of the most
widely used introductory-level textbook on exceptional learners.
William
J. Kehoe, O'Dell Professor of Commerce, was given the
Outstanding Service award by the American Society of Business
and Behavioral Sciences. Kehoe was also elected a Fellow
by the Society for Marketing Advances.
Deborah
Eisenberg, professor of creative writing, won the Rea
Award for the Short Story. Established in 1986 to honor
living U.S. or Canadian writers who make signiÞcant contributions
to the short story form, the award carries a $30,000 prize.
NASA
appointed Bob Swap, an assistant research professor
in environmental sciences, the U.S. coordinator for the
Southern Africa Regional Science Initiative 2000, an international
effort to study the effect of land-use change in southern
Africa on global warming.
Kyra
D. Gaunt, assistant professor of music, received a Ford
Foundation postdoctoral fellowship from the National Academies
of Science. She also received a $30,000 research grant from
the National Endowment for the Humanities for her research
on the articulation of identity in black cultural performance.
James
A. Smith, associate professor of civil engineering,
became the Þfth faculty member awarded the Cavaliers' Distinguished
Teaching Professorship. Funded by the Athletics Department,
the professorship recognizes eminent scholars who excel
in teaching undergraduates.
|
Still
at the Heart of the Academical Village
Thomas
Jefferson encouraged faculty and students to use the
University library by placing it in the Rotunda at the
center of the Academical Village. Today, the Internet
allows users from around the globe to tap many of the
library's resources without stepping on Grounds.
Nonetheless, more people walk through the doors of the
University library than ever before. The espresso bar
that replaced the neat rows of card catalogs in the
magnificent entry hall of Alderman Library is always
bustling, and the rest of the hall is filled with students
working intently on banks of computers.
Rather than rendering the library obsolete, technology
has made it much more accessible. Students search
the online catalog from their dorm rooms and arrive
at the library with a list of books and periodicals
they want to consult.
Karin Wittenborg, University librarian, reports
the results: "Our users spend less time searching
for material and more time using it." |
Karin
Wittenborg |
|
|
Larry
J. Sabato, the Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Government and
Foreign Affairs, received this year's Alumni Association Distinguished
Professor Award for signiÞcant contributions to University life
for at least a decade.
Raymond
J. Nelson, professor of English and former dean of arts and
sciences, received U.Va.'s highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson
Award, in 1999. Given annually since 1955, the award honors a
member of the University community who exempliÞes in character,
work, and influence the principles and ideals of the University's
founder. This year, the University honored David T. Gies,
professor of Spanish and former president of the Faculty Senate,
with the award.
|
Building
Centers of Excellence Across the Curriculum
The
awards and honors faculty here receive are just one indication
of the quality of the intellectual activity on the University
Grounds. This year faculty attracted more than $209 million
in funding for research from outside agencies, a University
record. Again, the diversity of the awards they won highlights
the broad strengths of our faculty:
-
The Curry School of Education received two grants from
the U.S. Department of Education totaling $3.6 million.
The grants will support the school's efforts to identify
digital resource centers and train teachers to use them
in the classroom.
-
Paul Allaire, a professor of mechanical engineering, and
his associates at U.Va and the Utah ArtiÞcial Heart Institute,
received nearly $4.2 million from the National Institutes
of Health to continue development of an artiÞcial heart
pump.
-
Six U.Va. projects, most having to do with digital preservation
of historic archives, received just over $1 million in
funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
-
Five engineering faculty won National Science Foundation
research grants totaling more than $3 million for fundamental
research and innovative applications of information technology.
-
The engineering school won a $5 million grant from the
National Science Foundation to establish a new Center
for Nanoscopic Design.
|
|
Making
Voting a Habit
Staff
from the Center for Governmental Studies, Melissa
Northernm Alex Theodoridis, Dan Payne, and Chris Smith,
helped with the Youth Leadership Voting Initiative.
When it
comes to politics, the most disenchanted segments
of society are Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers. U.Va.'s Center
for Democratic Studies, founded by government professor
Larry J. Sabato, has taken this problem to heart.
This year, U.Va.'s Youth Leadership Initiative, a
project organized by the center, joined with the Virginia
Student/Parent Mock Election to conduct the largest
mock election in the Commonwealth's history. The Youth
Leadership Initiative developed software that allows
students to vote online using secure cyber-ballots
speciÞcally tailored to each student's home voting
location. Other students will use paper ballots to
vote at their schools. The United States Congress
has endorsed the Youth Leadership Initiative, awarding
the center a $2 million grant to take its next election
to students around the nation.
|
|
Laying
the Groundwork for Tomorrow's Treatments
Researchers
at the University are taking a leading role in advancing knowledge
of the human body and unraveling the mysteries of disease, opening
the way for new treatments and cures. For instance, University
researchers have linked the abnormalities in the function of Alzheimer's
mitochondrial genes, Þrst described by U.Va. scientists in 1997,
to one of
the characteristic abnormalities found in the brains of patients
with Alzheimer's disease. This research could be used to develop
drugs to reverse the process or to prevent mitochondrial damage.
Other researchers this year published Þndings that provide insights
into what makes cells grow and divide. These Þndings may shed
light on new treatment targets for some cancers.
 Our
researchers' ability to secure major grants, in the face of stiff
competition, is a testament to the quality of research being conducted
here. This year's awards included the following:
-
Dr. Jerry L. Nadler, the Kenneth R. Crispell Professor of Internal
Medicine, and his collaborators received a $1.4 million award
from the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation to develop new therapies
to delay the onset of diabetes and reduce its complications.
They were also awarded nearly $1
million from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and
the diabetes foundation to examine the link between diabetes
and heart disease.
-
Avril Somlyo, Gary Owens, and Timothy
Haystead received an $8
million grant from the National Institutes
of Health to study how blood vessels develop and how their
contractile activity is regulated.
-
The School of Medicine has received $1 million over Þve years
from the National Institutes of Health to support an interdisciplinary
bio-technology training program. The program
will offer Ph.D.-level graduate students the chance to work
alongside leading scientists in both academic and industrial
settings.
-
A multidisciplinary research team, led by Dr. Paul M. Suratt,
received $1.3 million from the National Institutes of Health
to study how sleep apnea may slow a child's development and
possibly cause poor school performance and behavioral problems.
- A
five-year, $5.1 million grant from the National Institute of
Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease will help U.Va. researchers
led by Dr. Fabio Cominelli pinpoint the genetic factors underlying
Crohn's disease, an autoimmune disorder that causes painful
inflammation in the intestines.
-
Dr. Michael O. Thorner received a Þve-year, $500,000 unrestricted
research grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation to study
growth hormone regulation.
Involving Undergraduates in
Research
Faculty
research has an immediate effect on the educational experience
of our students. Research projects support many of our graduate
students. They also provide undergraduates with the eye-opening
and exciting experience of working on the outer limits of our
knowledge. For instance, Jefferson and Echols Scholar Eric Dunham
is helping physics professor Blaine Norum measure the properties
of the strong nuclear force using the continuous electron beam
accelerator at Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory. Dunham's
job is to create a computer simulation that mimics the process,
giving researchers the precise settings they need to optimize
their results.
Another
student, Natalie Beckman, is working in the lab of Dr. Thomas
J. Braciale, director of the Beirne Carter Center for Immunology
Research and an expert on the respiratory syncytial virus.
This virus is responsible for a high proportion of hospital
stays in children under twelve years of age. Beckman has developed
a test that improves researchers' ability to measure a portion
of the immune system's reaction to this infection.
By giving our undergraduates the opportunity not simply to
learn new things, but to discover them, the University lifts
their intellectual and imaginative horizons, while teaching
the fundamental skills they need to build their careers.
|
Dr. Braciale and student Natalie Beckman |
|
