Vanderbilt University Register: Faculty Staff Notes

FACULTY & STAFF NOTES

APPOINTMENTS

Gordon Gee, Chancellor, was appointed by the incoming Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce chairman to a one-year term on the Chamber Board of Governors' Executive Committee.

John P. Wikswo, Jr., the A.B. Learned Professor of Living State Physics and professor of physics, has been appointed an inaugural Fellow of the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the American Heart Association, and hence will be a Fellow of the American Heart Association, a recently created designation. Wikswo is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Wikswo

AWARDS

John D. Bransford, Centennial Professor of Psychology, professor of education, co-director of the Learning Center and a senior fellow at the Kennedy Center, won the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Research Award for an article he co-wrote with Daniel Schwartz from Stanford that was published in Review of Research in Education. At the AERA Award's ceremony, the citation for the award read: "This article takes a fresh look at one of the most central and enduring questions in teaching and learning. By reconceptualizing the traditional idea of 'transfer,' the authors develop notions of powerful learning that have significant implications for educational aims and strategies. This is a seminal piece of work of interest to all members of this association."

Francisco Ruiz-Ramón, Centennial Professor of Spanish, was awarded the "Premio Valle-Inclán" by Día Mundial del Teatro March 27 for his work on and for Spanish theater.

Woody Widenhofer, Vanderbilt head football coach, was awarded the Roy Kramer Award for his lifelong contribution to football by the Middle Tennessee chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame.

Widenhofer

HONORS

Diane Neighbors, director of the University and Hospital Child Care Centers, was honored by the Metropolitan Council April 3 in a resolution proclaiming the week of April 17 as "Week of the Young Child" for 2001. Because of Neighbors' contributions and dedication to children, including serving as president of the area Nashville Association for the Education of Young Children and Public Policy Chair for the Tennessee Association for the Education of Young Children, the resolution states, "it is fitting and proper that the Metropolitan Council recognize and commend Dr. Diane Neighbors for her work and interest in the well-being of our young children." Mayor Bill Purcell also reappointed Neighbors to a five-year term on the Metro Social Services Commission. She was confirmed as a member of the board by the Metro Council on April 17. The commission has oversight responsibilities for a variety of services, including programs for children, youth and senior adults.

PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Jonathan Farley, assistant professor of mathematics, was invited to present the 2001 Lecture of the University of Louisville Diversity in Mathematics Group Thursday, April 19. His topic was "What Ever Happened to West Indian Archie? The riddle of 'black mathematics' and its relevance to the struggle for human liberation." Farley was invited to speak in the University of Louisville's Mathematics Colloquium Friday, April 20 on "Harry Potter and the Linear Extensions of a Naturally Labelled Poset, Enumerated by Descents." And, Farley was invited by the Mathematics Department of Duke University to speak on April 30 about "Differential Posets and Distributive Lattices: A 1975 Conjecture of Richard P. Stanley."

Farley

Philip D. Rasico, professor of Spanish and Portuguese, was a keynote speaker at the Congrés Internacional de Toponímia i Onomàstica Catalanes held April 1822 at the Universitat de València in Valencia, Spain. Rasico's paper, presented at the conference's concluding plenary session, was titled "Julià-Bernat Alart i la Toponímia de la Catalunya Nord."

Items for the Faculty and Staff Notes column should be sent to Tara S. Donahueby campus mail to 708 Baker Building, by e-mail to tara.s.donahue@vanderbilt.edu or by fax to 343-7313.