Honors and awards

October 2014

Wickert co-chairs APLU task force on tech transfer and promotions

Jonathan Wickert, senior vice president and provost, is co-chairing the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities' Task Force on Tenure, Promotion and Technology Transfer. The task force will make recommendations on considering tech transfer activities in faculty reviews.

Pesek receives American Society of Agronomy Presidential Award

John Pesek, Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and agronomy emeritus professor, is the recipient of the inaugural ASA Presidential Award. The ASA Presidential Award is given to individuals or teams who have influenced agronomic sciences or crop production practices so greatly the impact of their efforts will be enduring on future science. ISU also unveiled a portrait of Pesek that will hang in the second floor of the Agronomy Building on Iowa State University campus.  Done in oil by American artist Liza Amir, the portrait was purchased by the Department of Agronomy and University Museums and is part of the Art on Campus Collection.

Lucht receives two awards for paper

Tracy Lucht, assistant professor in the Greenlee School, received the Maurine Beasley Award for outstanding women’s history paper and the David Sloan Award for top faculty paper. The work was co-authored with her former graduate assistant, Chunyu Zhang, who is now in a Ph.D. program at Ohio University. Her paper, “‘Television’s Closet Revolutionary’: Mary Jane Odell and Her Fight for Public Affairs Programming,” won two awards at the American Journalism Historians Association's annual meeting.

Mitchell earns thesis award

Hope Mitchell, an associate in University Library's digital repository, has been recognized by the Iowa History Center at Simpson College, Indianola, for her master's thesis, "Sacrificing our Daughters: Changing Perceptions of Prostitution in Iowa 1880-1915." Mitchell's research was named the outstanding master's thesis in subjects related to Iowa history.

Vela wins ACS award for fostering diversity

Javier Vela, assistant professor of chemistry and associate of the Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, received the Midwest American Chemical Society (ACS) Stanley Israel Award for Advancing Diversity in the Chemical Sciences. The award recognizes individuals or institutions that have advanced diversity in the chemical sciences and significantly stimulated or fostered activities that promote inclusiveness within the ACS Midwest region.

Cademartiri receives Beckman Young Investigator Award

Ludovico Cademartiri, ISU engineering, was recently selected for the highly prestigious 2014 Beckman Young Investigator Award, a $750,000 award given yearly to just seven young scientists in the United States whose visionary research proposals have the potential of changing the chemical and life sciences. This is the third time in 25 years that Iowa State has been awarded, and the first time for the College of Engineering.

Leath honored with Penn State Alumni Fellow Award

ISU President Steven Leath has been honored for his outstanding professional accomplishments and given the lifelong title of Alumni Fellow, the highest award given by the Penn State Alumni Association.