Dubois Outlines Recent UW Accomplishments

May 22, 2004 -- President Philip L. Dubois on Saturday (May 22) presented to UW trustees a report of recent major accomplishments at and gifts to the University of Wyoming. Among them were:

The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year, $587,000 Faculty Early Career Development grant to Daniel Dale, assistant professor in the UW Department of Physics and Astronomy. The NSF established the CAREER program in 1995 to support the early career development activities of teacher-scholars who are "most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century." Awardees are selected on the basis of creative, career-development plans that effectively integrate research and education within the context of their institution's mission.

The National Institutes of Health have awarded a $1.2 million grant to UW Pharmacy Professor Jun Ren to investigate ways to treat alcohol-related heart disease. The grant, through NIH's Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, will support research for five years in the new Center for Cardiovascular Research and Alternative Medicine in the UW College of Health Sciences. Ren directs the center.

The American Association of Anatomists recently bestowed its A.J. Ladman AAA/Wiley Exemplary Service Award to Robert O. Kelley, dean of the UW College of Health Sciences, in recognition of his distinguished service to the field of anatomy. The association cited Kelley's continuing research on fundamental questions of cell and molecular biology, noting that his work has provided new information on the structural changes and cell matrix differentiation during development of the human limb.

Carl and Lisa Williams of Denver provided a $1 million gift to UW's five-year, $125 million DISTINCTION campaign, which will be doubled by a Wyoming state matching fund to provide $2 million for UW's College of Law. The gift will provide endowments supporting an annual speaker series, two professorships, and a research fellowship -- all designed to advance the discussion of ethics at the university. The couple also made a $1 million estate gift to UW.

UW is the highest-ranked public university in the Rocky Mountain region in a new survey to determine the nation's top 100 "Most Unwired College Campuses." Intel Corporation ranks UW 67th, ahead of such universities as Harvard and Stanford, in a national survey to determine the campuses that offer the best wireless accessibility. The survey findings are based on the number of hotspots, the number of undergraduates, number of computers and the computer to student ratio. The results also were based on the percentage of each college campus that is covered by wireless technology.

Standard and Poor's Rating Services has assigned its AA- rating to UW's $11.1 million Facilities Improvement Revenue Bonds, Series 2004, which will finance a portion of the renovation and expansion of the Biochemistry Building for the College of Health Sciences and the renovation of two residence halls, McIntyre and Orr, for safety and lifestyle improvements. Standard and Poor's attributed the strong rating to balanced financial operations and diverse revenue stream; strong levels of private fund raising; very low debt; historically strong debt service coverage from pledged revenues and expected strong 2004 revenues; and the university's status as the state's only four-year college or university, with strong enrollments.

Desiree Henriksen of Evansville, a UW junior in chemistry and education, has been named a 2004 Goldwater Scholar. She is among 300 students nationwide, from a field of more than 1,100 mathematics, science and engineering student applicants, selected to receive the Goldwater Scholarships, the premier undergraduate award in these fields. The scholarships cover tuition, fees, books and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

Political science senior Ryan Sandefer of Casper received the award for the best paper presented at the nation's largest foreign affairs undergraduate conference, the 44th annual Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference in Annapolis, Md. Using sociologist C. Wright Mills' theory of the "power elite," Sandefer showed how the current Bush administration is connected to the military-industrial complex, and how that connection could possibly affect November's presidential election.

Nona Zakharyan, a UW music graduate student from Armenia, won the $6,000 Rosenburg Prize for first place in the Fort Collins (Colo.) Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition. Zakharyan competed against top performers representing the nation's leading conservatories and university music programs. She previously won the first prize in the 2003 National Young Artist Competition at Odessa (Texas) College, where she competed against 25 pianists and other instrumentalists from throughout the United States.

Janae Nuspl of Eaton, Colo., a graduating senior in speech, language and hearing science, received the national Delta Delta Delta sorority Ida Shaw Award for outstanding service and involvement in diverse campus activities. She was selected from among more than 100 nominees nationwide.

Two members of the UW Intercollegiate Horse Show Association and Team placed in the top 10 in national competition at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. Michelle Schwope of Deaver, a graduate student in food science and human nutrition, placed seventh in the alumni reining pattern class. Amy Goodson of Sundance, a criminal justice major, won eighth in the individual walk/trot/canter equitation class.

Erika Zaragoza of Saratoga, a graduating senior in business management, has been accepted as one of 20 students nationwide to participate in a one year fellowship with the Hispanic Congressional Caucus Institute in Washington D.C. This program's goal is to develop the next generation of Latino leaders as public policy makers at the local, state, and national levels.

The NACTA Journal (the professional journal serving college teachers of agricultural, environmental, natural, and life sciences) presented its E. B. Knight Journal award to six UW faculty members. Their article, "A collaborative approach for improving teaching and critical writing across disciplines: a Wyoming case study," was chosen as one of journal's best articles for 2003. The authors are Bruce A. Cameron, Donald M. McLeod, Sonya S. Meyer, James K. Wangberg and Karen C. Williams from the College of Agriculture and Jane V. Nelson, Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning.

Posted on Saturday, May 22, 2004