COLLEGE OF SCIENCES AWARDS FACULTY
Charles Hyde-Wright, professor of physics, won the Gene W. Hirshfeld Award for faculty excellence at the College of Sciences' 2006 Awards Day ceremony on Saturday. He is an experimentalist in Old Dominion University's nuclear physics group and a researcher at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News.
Another physics professor, Lawrence Weinstein, won the college's distinguished faculty teaching award for 2006. He also is a nuclear experimentalist who divides his time between campus and the Jefferson Lab.
Jennifer Younkin of the psychology department won the college's distinguished lecturer teaching award for the second year in a row.
The advisor of the year award went to Janet Brunelle, lecturer and chief advisor in the computer science department.
The college's outstanding teaching assistants were Mohammad Al-Zein (laboratory) of the biological sciences department and Tony Slaba (classroom) of the mathematics and statistics department. Al-Zein named Kerry Kilburn, senior lecturer, and Rebecca Bray, adjunct associate professor, as his inspirational mentors. Slaba's mentor is Gordon Melrose, associate professor.
Hyde-Wright received a prize of $1,000 for the Hirshfeld recognition. Gene W. Hirschfeld, the founder of the ODU School of Dental Assisting and Dental Hygiene, established an endowment that provides one award in alternating years to a faculty member from the College of Sciences and the College of Health Sciences. The recipient must have excelled in teaching and some combination of research and/or professional service.
Earlier this year, Hyde-Wright was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, joining eight other members of the ODU physics faculty who have been awarded the prestigious APS title. The fellowship citation noted his pioneering work in "deeply virtual compton scattering," which he uses in Jefferson Lab experiments to shed new light on the structure of the atomic nucleus.
Both Hyde-Wright and Weinstein have distinguished themselves in the classroom, as well as the laboratory, and are known for their outreach work to promote physics among elementary and secondary school pupils, said Richard Gregory, dean of the College of Sciences and one of the award presenters.
Weinstein and Younkin received $500 prizes for this year's distinguished teaching awards. The graduate teaching assistant awardees won $150 and the advisor of the year, $100.
In his welcoming remarks, Provost Thomas Isenhour encouraged science students to combat "science illiteracy" during their careers. "You must not only do science, you must be a teacher," he said.
Students who were honored at the ceremony on Saturday were:
Biology
-Brittany Fields, outstanding service award (Ralph Stevens and Kneeland Nesius, mentors)
-Elizabeth Zamer, outstanding student award (Kneeland Nesius and Daniel Dauer, mentors)
Chemistry
-Amy Bermudez, outstanding graduating senior (Bob Dias, Jennifer Poutsma, Mark Elliot, mentors)
-Scott Weinrich, outstanding graduating senior biochemistry (Ken Mopper, mentor)
Computer Science
-Don Jernigan, Fall 2005 outstanding undergraduate (Steven Zeil, Larry Wilson, Janet Brunelle, mentors)
-James Mauldin, Spring 2006 outstanding undergraduate (Janet Brunelle, mentor)
-Ekaterina Shurkova, outstanding teaching assistant (Stephan Olariu and Dennis Ray, mentors)
Mathematics and Statistics
-Rodney Beckner, top graduating senior (John Adams, mentor)
-Patrick Rowe, top graduating senior (Gordon Melrose, mentor)
-Roy Sabo, Philip R. Wohl Award (Rao Chaganty, mentor)
-Paul Smith, top graduating senior (Carl Schulz, mentor)
Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
-Timothy Scott, outstanding student graduate (Donald Swift and Richard Whittecar, mentors)
-Keli Smith, outstanding student undergraduate (Richard Whittecar, mentor)
Physics
-Robert Horne, Lilian and Clifford Adams Scholarship (Charles Sukenik, mentor)
-Jack Mills, outstanding senior (Mark Havey, mentor)
Psychology
-Brittany Anderson, Elizabeth C. Guy Outstanding Academic Award (James Bliss, mentor)
-Amber Berkley, Elizabeth C. Guy Outstanding Academic Award (Jennifer Younkin, mentor)
-Carole Bonatz, Elizabeth C. Guy Outstanding Academic Award (Garland White, mentor)
-Jennifer Duenas, Elizabeth C. Guy Outstanding Academic Award (Thomas Cash, mentor)
-Michele Haley, Elizabeth C. Guy Outstanding Service Award (Bryan Porter, mentor)