ASU News - Faculty / Staff

Awards honor ASU, community leaders

isanche1 — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:44:36 -0600

ASU’s Chicano/Latino & Staff Association (CLFSA) recently celebrated the contributions of community leaders and members of the organization who are making a difference within the ASU community and Arizona.

The ceremony, held annually at the university, provides an opportunity for the members to connect and re-establish relationships with ASU faculty and staff, in addition to community leaders who want to create stronger bonds with the university.

The event also serves to inform the community of new projects, challenges and success stories of the organization.

“The CLFSA is notable because faculty and staff work together to achieve common goals,” says Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner, president of the organization. “Most of the projects could not be accomplished without staff participation, and ASU is a place that encourages cooperation among faculty and staff.”

Edmundo Hidalgo, president of Chicanos Por La Causa, said that being the recipient of the César E. Chávez Community Service Award is a great honor, because he is an ASU alumnus and the award gives him an opportunity to remain involved with ASU.

“Many of the members of the CLFSA were my mentors, and I always knew that I could count on them when I was a student,” Hidalgo says. “ I’m no longer a student, but I believe it is important to give back to the university and the community because most of us did not reach our goals alone.”

Hidalgo received the award for his contributions to the Arizona community, and for his dedication to raising scholarship money for ASU students who were unable to pay in-state tuition.

The organization was founded at ASU in the fall of 1970. It aims to establish a better understanding of the problems faced by Latinos, and its members study ways to express concerns to the proper university administrators so that practical remedies can be implemented.
The recipients of this year awards are:

• Manuel Servin Faculty Award – Regents’ Professor Cordelia C. Candelaria, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

• Christine Marin Staff Award – Anita Verdugo Tarango, University Student Initiatives.

• Roberto L. Pastor Student Award – Elenia Sotelo, Urban and Metropolitan Studies Undergraduate.

• César E. Chávez Community Service Award – Edmundo Hidalgo, president and chief executive officer of Chicanos Por La Causa, and ASU’s Hispanic Research Center.

• Laura Rendón Scholarship Recipients – Esther Duarte, incoming ASU student; Raul Martinez, current ASU student; and Myriam J. Hubbard, transfer ASU student.

History sheds light on current human rights issues

evelasco — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:09:00 -0600

Mark von Hagen, a historian specializing in the Russian empire, Ukraine and the borderlands of eastern Europe, is wrapping up his first year as chair of the ASU Department of History in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Von Hagen came to Arizona after spending more than 22 years at Columbia University where he was chair of the history department and director of the Harriman Institute, the oldest and largest teaching and research center devoted to the successor states of the Soviet empire. He also chaired the master’s of international affairs program at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.

At ASU von Hagen is focusing on the current strengths of the department as well as developing the fields of comparative and global history.

In a wide-ranging interview, von Hagen reflects on aspects of ASU’s Department of History and his role in shaping its future.

Why did you decide to come to ASU and chair the department of history?

ASU is an exciting, dynamic institution in the process of transformation. The more I get to know ASU, the more I am impressed by the real possibilities of creating research programs that can connect history with departments in the social sciences and humanities, even the natural sciences and professional schools.

We have one of the strongest programs in public history in the country. The program trains people to work in non-traditional academic careers like museums, archives, scholarly publishing, historical preservation and even documentary filmmaking. These are all fields that historians rely on for sources when conducting their research.

Also, a third of our double majors are in education to be middle school or high school teachers. Having teachers specialized in history is important for developing civic literacy in our future citizens.

What are your plans for the department of history?

Our concentrations in the United States - especially the West- Asia and Europe are strong, but I would like to develop them even further. I have been thinking about an area of study based on our geographic location here in the southwest United States. Since we live in the desert, comparative desert societies is one intriguing possible track. There are a lot of other deserts around the world that have given rise to societies that have not only tested the very notions of sustainability, but made great contributions to civilization.

Urban history is another obvious area to develop. Phoenix is the fastest growing city in the country, a place where sustainability is becoming prominent in people’s minds. The history department is already collaborating with other units at ASU on the interdisciplinary and comparative study of cities.

In order to move the department toward a more global orientation, the history of global processes, from migration to trade to cultural transfers, is another important track. There are a lot of colleagues currently in the department teaching aspects of global history, but here too the opportunities to collaborate with other units across campus and beyond have not been much explored.

And, it seems to me that here in Arizona there’s a lot more openness between mainstream medicine and naturopathic and other kinds of alternative medicines than I’ve been used to from the east coast. The history of medicine, if we look at how other societies at other times dealt with diseases and health, is another area where we might be able to contribute something and give us other opportunities for collaboration with natural sciences, human evolution, the medical school, and others.

How do you fit into the New American University?

I’ve been a leader in the field of Russia, Ukraine and comparative history and area studies for the past 20 years, and I’m bringing that experience here to ASU. A large part of that experience has been global engagement. I have been privileged to be involved in building scholarly and other contacts with colleagues in the former Soviet space, to train students who have gone on to work not just in history, but in the non-governmental sector, especially in human rights.

I support President Crow’s position on student success and agree wholeheartedly that the university should be geared toward the student. It is why I got into higher education in the first place. I enjoy teaching and team-teaching. I have also learned a great deal from interdisciplinary teaching and collaborative research.

What research are you currently conducting?

My scholarship is interdisciplinary, focusing on modern history with an eye to contemporary problems,particularly war and society, multiethnic states and nationality politics in modern Russian and Soviet history.

I am a co-editor of “Russian Empire: Space, People, Power, 1700 to 1930.” The book is a culmination of research completed for a Ford Foundation grant which brought together historians from both Russia and the United States. The premise is to examine the Russian empire by looking at space and regions and evaluate how different empires tried to fill that space with their own institutions, people and ideas. The history of these empires offers some insight on how contemporary multi-national countries deal with difference.

My new book, “War in a European Borderland: Occupations and Occupation Plans in Galicia and Ukraine, 1914-1918,” came out last fall. The book reviews how Russian, German and Austrian armies tried to impose regimes on the borderland territories, during World War I, that are now Ukraine. It is very much contemporary history and has disturbing parallels to the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Why did you choose to focus your research on Russian and Ukrainian history?

My father worked in military intelligence following World War II and during the Cold War. He would often bring home scrap paper maps of Eastern Europe that they were throwing away, so I had that somewhere in my head. My Austrian mother lived in the Soviet Zone – Austria was divided like Germany into four zones until 1955 – where my parents met. And then, when we were living in Denver, a family friend was teaching Russian and thought it would be a good idea for his daughter and me to study Russian. After that, every time I had a junior high school project in social studies, I did it on Russia. These facts brought me to my lifelong fascination with Russia and its history.

Besides Russian, what other languages do you speak?

Ukrainian, German, Polish, French, and I studied Turkish for two years. I also speak some Spanish. I’ve studied it more recently.

What universities have you attended?

I earned my bachelor’s degree in international relations from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, a master’s degree in Slavic languages and literatures from Indiana University Bloomington, and a doctorate in history and humanities from Stanford University.

You’ve held many international positions. Can you tell us about some of them?

I served as the first non-Ukrainian president of the International Association for Ukrainian Studies and was principal historical consultant to a post-Soviet archival microfilming project, the Russian Archives Project of Primary Source Microfilms (Gale Group). I also remain a member of the advisory board of a second archival publishing project, the Annals of Communism with Yale University Press. I have been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

More recently, I was nominated for the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.

You also have an interest in human rights. What inspired you to get involved with that sector?

It actually got started when I was doing my own doctoral research in Soviet history and got to know many Soviet intellectuals in the dissident and human rights communities. Later, I received a grant from the Ford Foundation to do a history of the human rights movement in the Brezhnev era, and eventually I was asked to be on the advisory board of the Europe and Asia division of the Human Rights Watch, a position I still hold. That started my passion for human rights. I taught a course last year before I left Columbia on human rights issues, in post-Soviet conditions. I’ve just started talking with others here about organizing a center for the study of human rights. I’m also involved in planning a conference on gender and human rights issues.

2 faculty earn Centennial Professorships

icsea — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:41:58 -0600

In recognition of excellent teaching and community service, Associated Students of ASU has given the 2008-2009 Centennial Professorship Award to two of their most respected professors, Guy Cardineau of the School of Life Sciences and Kimberly Scott of the Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.

The two were honored at a reception and dinner April 30. Each received a cash prize of $5,000, plus a stipend of $5,000 to be used for the benefit of students and classroom teaching. They will be asked to give a public lecture during the next school year.

“Competition this year was extremely stiff, with 32 nominations and 16 complete applications, but professor Cardineau and professor Scott stood out among the rest,” says Qiawen Wu, director of the Centennial Professorship search committee. “Their dedication to students was apparent. We would like to commend them on the excellent work they do both in and out of the classroom.”

A committee made up of six graduate and six undergraduate students evaluated the nominees based on teaching contributions, involvement in community service and the impact of intended uses of the award.

Students say Cardineau renders the difficult concepts in microbiology and biotechnology accessible and comprehensible, making sure students understand before moving ahead. He also teaches business and law concepts that have ethical implications in the field, encouraging students to envision the future.

Though he primarily is a researcher, he is strikingly committed to training the next generation of scientists. He is devoted and enthusiastic in his teaching, and he brings experts from industry into the classroom and gives students advice on career development.

Scott’s work focuses on adolescent minority girls, including a project she founded called CompuGirls that brings computer education to minority youths in the Phoenix area. Scott studies the sociology of childhood, race and gender issues in urban elementary schools, and she also mentors a number of students in the DELTA doctorate project.

She encourages young women to become educators who create positive social and community change, and she emphasizes technology skills as a portal to lifelong learning and a successful career.

Cardineau has been at ASU five years, having worked as a researcher in the private sector for 20 years. He has 55 patents worldwide.

In addition to his appointment in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, he is a research professor in the Biodesign Institute and the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

Scott joined the faculty of the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education two years ago, having been recruited from Hofstra University.

“The Centennial Professorship Award is truly a student award, and a tangible way that we students can give back to the deserving professors who truly hold teaching and community involvement in high esteem,” Wu says. “ASU is quite blessed by professors who show a real joy in their profession. They profoundly influence our lives beyond just academic success.”

Tirosh-Samuelson to become director of Jewish Studies

chughes3 — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:48:13 -0600

When asked why a public university should teach Jewish Studies, the incoming director of ASU’s program doesn’t hesitate with her response.

“There is no way to understand the story of humanity, let along the story of the West, without telling the story of the Jews and the story of Judaism. The story of the Jewish people is nearly as old as human written records. Judaism developed side by side with the Christian interpretation of the Judaic heritage, and there is no way to understand Western, Christian culture without its Judaic foundation,” says Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, who will assume the position of director of Jewish Studies at ASU on Aug. 16.

Tirosh-Samuelson, who has been at ASU since 1999, is a professor and associate chair in the history department. In the director’s position, she will hold the Irving and Miriam Lowe Professorship in Modern Jewish Studies and will remain an active member of the history department.

“One the attractive aspects of the director of Jewish Studies position is the convergence between ASU’s growth trajectory and the interests and needs of the Jewish community in metropolitan Phoenix,” Tirosh-Samuelson says.

In sharing her vision with members of the faculty and the community, Tirosh-Samuelson says that Jewish Studies at ASU will focus on research, teaching and community outreach.

“At ASU, Jewish Studies will offer a new and creative model to integrate a Jewish perspective into all relevant disciplines and academic units, including history, religious studies, political science, justice studies, international languages and cultures, media and film studies, and law,” she says.

Tirosh-Samuelson would like to see develop new subjects, discourses and emphases within the program, specifically in the areas of Judaism and science, Judaism and environmentalism, Jewish history as global history, Judaism and liberalism, and Judaism and the arts.

As part of the community outreach, Jewish Studies will organize monthly seminars on campus, as well as art exhibits, either on campus or in synagogues.

Tirosh-Samuelson was born in Kibbutz Afikim, Israel, and served three years in the Israeli army. She has a doctorate in Jewish philosophy and mysticism from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from the Stony Brook University. This past November, the university recognized her with a Distinguished Alumni Award.

Tirosh-Samuelson’s research focuses on medieval and early-modern Jewish intellectual history with an emphasis on the interplay between philosophy and mysticism.

Among her published works, Tirosh-Samuelson is the author of “Between Worlds – The Life and Thought of Rabbi David ben Judah Messer Leon,” which was awarded the best work in Jewish history published in 1991 by the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and “Happiness in Premodern Judaism: Virtue, Knowledge, and Well Being” (2003). She also is the editor for “Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word” (2002), “Women and Gender in Jewish Philosophy” (2004), and “The Legacy of Hans Jonas: Judaism and the Phenomenon of Life” (2008).

She is the recipient of a $500,000 grant for the Templeton Research Lectures on the Constructive Engagement of Science and Religion – a three-year project titled “Facing the Challenges of Transhumanism: Religion, Science, and Technology.”

“Transhumanism is inherently interdisciplinary, as is the nature of Jewish Studies,” Tirosh-Samuelson says. “To understand Judaism, the Jews, Jewish civilization, one is called to do interdisciplinary work.

“My interest in transhumanism is part of a larger and deeper commitment to the dialogue of science and religion, which is rooted in the conviction that, historically and conceptually, science and religion are not antagonistic but intertwining cultural forces,” she says.

“In her new role as director of Jewish Studies Dr. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson brings with her both a national vision for the program and first-hand experience from some of the leading programs in Jewish Studies in the country: Emory University, Columbia University, and Indiana University,” says Deborah Losse, dean of humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “Her stature in the field is such that her work to advance the program will attract the attention of major scholars in Jewish Studies both in the United State and abroad.”

Tirosh-Samuelson steps into the directorship, a position vacated in 2005 with the departure of Jack Kugelmass. Since that time, Joel Gereboff, chair of ASU’s Department of Religious Studies, has been serving as interim director.

“With the appointment of Professor Hava Tirosh-Samuelson as the director of the Jewish Studies program we will be able to move forward on our goal of raising the international profile of the program, which will be of great benefit for many individuals on campus, the community and many areas of inquiry in general,” Gereboff says. “She brings with her a stellar international reputation as a scholar and an already very strong record of leadership and ability to work with and motivate others."

Faculty develop Spanish screener for language disorders

evelasco — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:32:00 -0600

Two faculty members in ASU’s Department of Speech and Hearing Science and a faculty member in the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education has been awarded a $1.6 million grant to develop a Spanish language screening measure to identify children at risk for language impairment. The four-year grant has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences.

There are currently no measures of language impairment designed specifically for Spanish speaking children. Existing tools have been translated from English to Spanish with the assumption that a translation is a valid measure. However, the tools do not take into account, changes in language complexity, cultural background or literacy. This can result in unidentified language impairment in children who need treatment or in children who have typical language abilities being identified as having a language disorder.

“Tests that are available now are culturally or linguistically biased,” says Laida Restrepo, associate professor in the department of speech and hearing science.

“They are based on experience. So if you don’t know the vocabulary or if you don’t know the forms that others are using, you are penalized. Because these children don’t have the same experiences as English-speaking children or may not have the advantage of a highly literate environment, a screener is needed that recognizes these differences.”

Shelley Gray, a speech and hearing associate professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is on Restrepo’s team, along with Joanna Gorin, assistant professor in the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education.

“With the current instruments, children are not being accurately identified. When children are tested outside of their native language with improper tools, it raises an issue of validity,” says Gorin, an expert in educational assessment design and analysis.

The team will develop dynamic tasks for the screener that will control for experience and culture.

“We are developing tasks that evaluate language and evaluate abilities that could contribute to the problem a child’s having. Dynamic learning tasks assess how your brain is functioning while you learn the new material. And that is different than most tests that evaluate knowledge at one point in time. But dynamic learning tasks actually allow you to watch children learn something new and see the problem by the mistakes a child makes, or the amount of effort it takes for the task,” notes Gray.

Gorin will help create the new screening measure in Spanish working with Spanish language items, for children ages four to eight, generated by Restrepo and Gray. She said this unique collaboration exemplifies the benefit of leveraging expert knowledge from different disciplines.

“This is an exciting project for me because it really hits on my primary emphasis, which is merging substantive theory with assessment design and analysis. So few projects I work on can do that,” Gorin says. “It’s incredibly important to start out with a well-specified model of what you’re trying to measure or it’s basically going to have a lot of noise and error in it.”

The goal is to design an assessment that is easy to administer and score by paraprofessionals in Arizona schools.

Notes Restrepo, “There are still not enough highly qualified bilingual personnel in Arizona schools. So often you have people with a high school degree working as a teacher’s aide or paraprofessional. We want them to be able to administer the screener easily, without requiring knowledge of technical information.”

The hope is to develop a universal screening tool for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students across the United States and for speech-language pathologists to assess first- through-second-grade students who have been referred by teachers, physicians or parents.

The belief is that early and accurate identification of learning impairment risk will lead to timely evaluation, identification and treatment. As a result, English language learners can be more successful academically, which ultimately impacts academic achievement in U.S. schools.

“Often times we get referrals of Latino children who are already too far behind in their education. So this screener will help identify children at risk and provide them with services early and access the services they should be receiving,” says Restrepo.

Adds Gorin, “Pre-school and school aged children should be screened as soon as they go to school. It’s really important for early intervention. The earlier children that have disorders get help the better you can prevent children from failing in school, and as Laida said, it has clinical application and it has educational application for our own research and others as well.”

“As speech-pathologists know, there are no validated language screening measures available for Spanish-speaking children. Now there will be a tool that researchers and speech-language pathologists can use to identify children at risk for language impairment.”

Verina Martin, verina.martin@asu.edu

480-965-4911

Mary Lou Fulton College of Education

Professor’s book delivers facts on drug smuggling

mattcrum — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:00:00 -0600

The image of cocaine being smuggled into the United States from Latin America by sophisticated organizations with corporate-like structures is largely a myth, according to a new book co-authored by an Arizona State University professor.

Drug Smugglers on Drug Smuggling: Lessons from the Inside (Temple University Press) is based on interviews Scott Decker and Margaret Townsend Chapman conducted with 34 drug smugglers serving long sentences in federal prison. Decker is director of ASU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Chapman is an associate at Abt Associates Inc.

Interviewees were serving an average sentence of 18 years; all were arrested for smuggling at least 800 pounds of cocaine (one had 10,000 pounds of the drug). The authors learned details of how individuals are recruited into smuggling, why they stay in it, and how their roles change over time. Interviewees described specific smuggling strategies and how they previously escaped detection.

“One of our key findings was how disorganized Latin American smuggling operations really are,” Decker says. “Rather than having a complex pyramid structure, these are ‘flat’ organizations consisting of small, self-contained cells. Any one individual who is a link in the chain, from the grower to the processor to the transporter, knows only the other links in the chain he deals with directly.

“This is part of the strength of these groups. It’s not difficult to replace one link in the chain who may be arrested or otherwise eliminated. And he can’t provide information enabling authorities to take down a large smuggling network.”

“Scott Decker and Margaret Townsend Chapman have made a major contribution to our understanding of the underworld of international drug smuggling,” says Richard Wright of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “Drug Smugglers on Drug Smuggling is a master work that must be read by anyone with a serious interest in the control and containment of illicit drugs.”

Adds Paul Cromwell of Wichita State University, “The study views the government’s efforts at deterrence from the perspective of the smugglers themselves, offering a unique approach to the issue.”

Decker and his co-author conclude their book with recommendations for U.S. law enforcement authorities. Among them are the need to publicize in the Caribbean and South America the long prison sentences awaiting smugglers who are apprehended, and to avoid being trapped by old operational models or fixed images of dynamic problems. Finally, the authors point to perhaps the most conspicuous and difficult way to reduce international drug smuggling – finding ways to reduce demand for illegal drugs in the United States.

The research Decker and Chapman present in their book was funded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. Customs Service. “We also are indebted to staff at the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the Bureau of Prisons, without whose cooperation the interviews would not have been accomplished,” Decker says.

Decker is the author of a dozen books on topics including gangs, juvenile justice, and criminal justice policy. He directs the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, housed in ASU’s College of Human Services on the West campus. Details about the school and its bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs are available at http://chs.asu.edu/ccj/.

Teaching expert shares philosophy for learning assessment

msjps — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:18:11 -0600

To Tom Angelo, the university classroom is like a balcony overlooking a dance floor.

The professor spends some time on the dance floor, interacting with the students, teaching them the day’s lesson, then goes to the balcony to get an overview of how things are going.

“Really good professionals move back and forth,” says Angelo, director of the University Teaching Development Centre at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. “That’s what they do.”

Angelo presented his philosophy for learning assessment during a recent two-hour workshop sponsored by the Center for Learning and Teaching Excellence.

“The kind of learning we want is learning that endures,” he says. “Most learning in the university does not endure beyond the course, studies show.”

Angelo is a native Californian who earned his doctoral degree in education from Harvard University. He has taught at DePaul University, the University of California-Berkeley, and other universities here and abroad. He notes that students all have preconceptions about subject matter when they walk in the classroom door.

“Overall, the most powerful indicator of what people will learn is what they already know,” he says. “All students know things that are deeply visceral, and they often come in with core beliefs that they may even not know they have. We need to learn what the students bring to the coursework.”

Angelo says teachers should ascertain where the students are as a starting point, adding: “If I don’t have baseline knowledge, I can’t assess what I have taught them.”

In his own classes, Angelo asks students what their goals are, then compares the answers with his syllabus.

“I use their goals to tailor my illustrations,” he says.

Many freshmen don’t know what their goals are, Angelo says, adding: “Just bring it down. What do they want to get out of this class?”

He advocates letting students talk among themselves about their goals to help clarify them.

Angelo says collaborative learning, though difficult to implement, is one of the most effective means of teaching.

“At least half of all students learn better when they are working with someone else,” he says. “Students can often explain things better than faculty. Some students learn by talking about it.”

Angelo also advocates building in many iterations in assignments, saying: “Let them re-write and re-do. Give feedback early in the term. Don’t write remarks on the final exams. Students won’t read them.”

During the session, Angelo demonstrated collaborative learning techniques several times by having the attendees break up into small groups to discuss questions among themselves.

He calls this the “Think-Pair-Share” technique.

“This technique provides students with the opportunity to formulate responses and practice communicating them with their peers,” he says.

“Since ‘Think-Pair-Share’ can dramatically improve students’ willingness and readiness to participate, it’s often used as a ‘warm up’ or ‘step up’ to a whole class discussion.”

Angelo, who previously was director of the American Association for Higher Education Assessment Forum, is a co-author of the classic text on assessment of student learning, “Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers.”

Pair elected to National Academy of Sciences

chughes3 — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:24:44 -0600

Two Arizona State University professors – Edward Prescott, Regents’ Professor and Nobel Laureate, and Luc Anselin, founding director of the School of Geographical Sciences – have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. They join eight other ASU faculty members in the Academy, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advises the federal government on matters of science or technology.

Prescott, who joined ASU in 2003 and is the W. P. Carey Chair of Economics in the W. P. Carey School of Business, is a senior monetary advisor at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank. He was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in economic sciences, being lauded for a lifetime of original thinking that has addressed some of the most important long-standing questions in macroeconomics. He shared the prize with Finn Kydland.

Prescott’s work on business cycles has recast the way economists think about economic fluctuations, arguing that they represent the optimal response of the economy to various shocks. He also is known for his seminal work in policy analysis, economic development, general equilibrium theory and finance.

“I am honored to be elected to the National Academy of Science. I think it is an indicator of the success that ASU economics is having,” says Prescott. “It is a pleasure to work with the students here, including not only the graduate students, but the honors undergraduates I teach as well. I owe my election to my students who I have learned so much from, and to a number of collaborators.”

Anselin, who joined ASU last July, is one of the principal developers of the field of spatial econometrics and is best known for his book “Spatial Econometrics” and his development of the applications SpaceStat and GeoDa.

Anselin also serves as director of the GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation, a new research unit in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences devoted to the development, implementation and application of state-of-the-art methods of geospatial analysis to policy issues in the social and environmental sciences.

“I think this is fantastic and an important recognition of the contribution of spatial thinking and spatial analysis to science. It also means that the School of Geographical Sciences becomes one of the very few geography units in the U.S. where there are two members of NAS among the faculty,” Anselin says. NAS member Billie Lee Turner, a national leader in sustainability science, recently joined ASU as the Gilbert F. White Chair in Environment and Society in the School of Geographical Sciences.

"On behalf of the entire ASU community I congratulate Professors Luc Anselin and Ed Prescott on this greatly deserved honor," says ASU President Michael M. Crow. "The scholarship of ASU's faculty and students has been repeatedly recognized by honors, awards, fellowships and grants. Election to the National Academy of Sciences is one of the greatest distinctions that any scholar can achieve."

Prescott and Anselin were among 72 new members who were elected April 29 to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Those new members bring the total number of active members to 2,041.

Other ASU faculty members who are NAS members include Charles Arntzen, Jane Buikstra, Roy Curtiss, Bert Hoelldobler, Elinor Ostrom, John Rowell, V. Kerry Smith.

Biodesign Institute names McLeod as facility services chief

lccampb — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:35:54 -0600

The Biodesign Institute at ASU has appointed Michael McLeod as director of facility services. In this role, he will oversee facility improvements, maintenance, space management, security, and shipping and receiving.

“Mike was instrumental in much of the construction planning for the Biodesign facility, so he knows the institute inside and out,” says Jeffrey Darbut, director of finance and operations at the institute. “By bringing him to the institute, his 30 years of facilities administration experience will assist us in completing two additional buildings.”

McLeod previously worked within ASU’s central Facilities Department and has been at ASU for six years. Most recently, he served as the interim associate director of the capital programs management group. He coordinated design, construction and move-in phases of ASU’s largest research buildings, including Biodesign’s Buildings A and B, and the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building V.

Earlier in his career, McLeod was the general manager of site services with Intel Corp., where he worked for 16 years in the company’s Chandler, Ariz., and Santa Clara, Calif., locations.

McLeod earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial technology from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Calif. He obtained accreditation by the U.S. Green Building Council in Leadership in Environmental Engineering and Design. He also is a member of the Project Management Institute.

Julie Kurth, julie.kurth@asu.edu
(480) 727-9386
Biodesign Institute

Greenes garners top honors in biomedical informatics

jkullman — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:25:24 -0600

Robert Greenes, chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics, has been selected to receive one of the highest honors in the field of biomedical informatics.

He will be presented the Morris F. Collen Award by the American College of Medical Informatics during the American Medical Informatics Association’s annual symposium in November in Washington, D.C. The award recognizes lifetime achievement and significant contributions to biomedical informatics.

The Department of Biomedical Informatics is in the School of Computing and Informatics, a part of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.

Greenes will be the second member of the department to earn the Collen Award. It was given in 2006 to Ted Shortliffe, a professor in the biomedical informatics program and dean of University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix in Partnership with Arizona State University.

Greenes came to lead the new department at ASU in 2007, after almost four decades at Harvard University.

He was a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Informatics at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he also has been a professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Greenes has an medical degree as well as a doctorate in applied mathematics and computer science, both from Harvard. He is certified in diagnostic radiology and did his residency in the field at Massachusetts General Hospital.

He also has been a radiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

He is a fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics as well as its past president, a fellow of the American College of Radiology and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He serves on the editorial boards of several medical information and management journals.

“It’s a honor to have someone of Bob Greenes’ high stature at the helm of our biomedical informatics department,” says Sethuraman Panchanathan, director of the School of Computing and Informatics. “He richly deserves this recognition that essentially puts him in the informatics hall of fame.”