September 2004 Accolades

September 1, 2004

Accolades is a monthly column recognizing the latest achievements of George Mason faculty and staff members. Submit Accolades information by the 15th of the month preceding to Attn: Daily Gazette, by mail to 4C5, by fax to 703-993-8784, or by e-mail to gazette@gmu.edu. Electronic photos with submissions are welcome.

College of Arts and Sciences

Deborah Boehm-Davis, Psychology, delivered the Franklin V. Taylor Award address at this year's American Psychological Association Annual Convention in Honolulu. Her topic was "Using Cognitive Modeling to Understand Performance in the Aviation Domain."

Alan Christensen, Biology, and William Stuart, University of Maryland, coached the USA Team in the 2004 Biology Olympiad for high school students held in Australia. The team captured four gold medals, more than any other team in the Olympiad's 15-year history.

Edwin A. Fleishman, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, received the 2004 Gold Medal for Life Achievement in the Application of Psychology from the American Psychological Foundation (APA). The award was conferred at the APA convention in Honolulu in recognition of a distinguished career and enduring contribution to advancing the application of psychology through methods, research, and/or application of psychological techniques to important practical problems.

Lois Horton, History and Art History, contributed an article, "Kidnapping and Resistance: Antislavery Direct Action in the 1850s," to the book, Passages to Freedom, a historic text edited by David W. Blight and published by the Smithsonian Press. The book is the first publication of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.

Raja Parasuraman, Psychology, received the Franklin V. Taylor Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology from the American Psychological Association.

Lisa Sparks

Lisa Sparks, Communication, served as MCAT test reviewer assessing interpersonal communication competencies for the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Educational Testing Service. She was invited to serve as a member of the access committee of the Fairfax County Long Term Care Task Force. Sparks also recently presented "Cross-cultural Social Identity and Health: An Intergroup Approach" and "Cancer Care and the Aging Patient: Complexities of Age-Related Communication Barriers" to the Ninth International Conference on Language and Social Psychology in State College, Penn.

Jeffrey Stewart, History, is a fellow at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University for the 2004-05 academic year. During this residential fellowship, he will be completing work on his biography of Alain Locke, the black philosopher of the Harlem Renaissance, and the black arts movement of the 1920s and 1930s. Since Locke received his PhD at Harvard in 1918, Stewart will use the resources of the university to fill out his portrait of a man who balanced multiple identities of a philosopher, critic, humanist, and gay black impresario.

College of Visual and Performing Arts

Linda Monson

Linda Apple Monson, Music, performed as collaborative pianist for the International Clarinet Association Festival held at the University of Maryland. During this four-day concert marathon, which was attended by more than 1,000 clarinetists, Monson accompanied feature recitals with Colin Bradbury, former principal clarinet of the BBC Symphony Orchestra; Karel Dohnal, virtuoso clarinetist from the Czech Republic; and Michael Galvan, professor of clarinet at Ithaca College. She also accompanied clarinetists in the International Young Artist Competition for university and conservatory graduate students.

Glenn Smith, Music, received an award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers that was based upon the unique prestige value of his catalog of original compositions as well as recent performances.

Boris Willis, Dance, and Sharon Mansure, dance MFA candidate, received two of four $5,000 fellowships awarded to Virginia choreographers by the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR)

Dennis J.D. Sandole met with diplomats and researchers from the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vienna, Austria, to discuss "Conflict Analysis and Resolution: Which Role for the European Security and Defense Policy?" He also met in Vienna with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea, to discuss lessons learned from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that might apply to efforts to relax tensions between South and North Korea. Sandole also had letters to the editor published in the Financial Times (London) on March 2, about the negotiations on North Korea's nuclear weapons program and another on May 12, on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq; and one in the International Herald Tribune, March 10, dealing with United States foreign policy unilateralism. Sandole also wrote with ICAR MS graduates Kimberly Dannels Ruff and Evis Vasili the chapter "Identity and Apocalyptic Terrorism" in Apocalyptic Terrorism: Understanding the Unfathomable, which was edited by R. Scott Moore. The book, a publication of the ICAR Working Group on War, Violence, and Terrorism, was published at Fort Belvoir, Va., by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in 2004. Sandole also wrote "Building Peace in Post-NATO Bosnia: A Recommended Action Plan," a chapter in From Peace Making to Self Sustaining Peace-International Presence in South East Europe at a Crossroads? which was edited by Predrag Jurekovic, Frederic Labarre, and Ernst Felberbauer, and published in Vienna, Austria, by the National Defense Academy in May 2004. His article, "Review of Henryk Sokalski's An Ounce of Prevention: Macedonia and the UN Experience in Preventive Diplomac (published in Washington, D.C., by the United States Institute of Peace Press, 2003)," appeared in Peace and Change: A Journal of Peace Research, vol. 29, nos. 3 and 4, July 2004.

Robinson Professors

Shaul Bakhash, Robinson Professor of History, and John Paden, Robinson Professor of International Affairs, were invited participants—along with various congressmen and senators—to the Political Islam: Challenges for U.S. Policy conference sponsored by The Aspen Institute Congressional Program in Barcelona, Spain.

Robert Hazen, Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences, presented two papers on the origin of life at the American Chemical Society annual meeting in Philadelphia.

Harold Morowitz, Robinson Professor of Biology and Natural Philosophy, was featured in articles in Science and Theology News. The articles were "Morowitz: Intelligent Design Plays No Role in Life" in the May 2004 issue, and "Morowitz Project Seeks Map for Ancient Bacteria Traffic" in June.

John Paden

John Paden, Robinson Professor of International Affairs, gave the keynote address, "Contemporary Relevance of the Sokoto Caliphate: Rule of Law, Federalism, and Conflict Resolution," at the opening ceremony of the International Conference of Scholars on the Sokoto Caliphate and Its Legacies 1804-2004, held in Abuja, Nigeria. He also gave a paper, "The Nigerian Model: Challenges for U.S. Policy," at the U.S. Institute of Peace Conference on Political Islam in Africa.

James Trefil, Robinson Professor of Physics, wrote a book, Human Nature: A Blueprint for Managing the Earth—by People, for People, that was published by Times Books in 2004. It was reviewed in the New York Times Book Review and the Washington Post Book World. Trefil was named to the advisory board for a new Public Broadcasting Service series, Science Café.

School of Information Technology and Engineering

Sushil Jajodia

Sushil Jajodia, Information and Software Engineering, served on the e-Information Systems, Security, and Audit Association (EISA) Conference Advisory Board for EISA's fourth annual international conference (ISAC 2004), held in New Delhi. The conference addressed ways to identify and develop effective strategies for e-governance, security, and a forensic-controlled environment.

J. Mark Pullen, Computer Science, was the keynote speaker at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Monterey, Calif., conference that celebrated a half century of computers in the classroom. The conference reviewed the history of computers at NPS, which was the first institution of higher learning to make computer time and facilities available to its students, and offered a look toward the future of computers at NPS.

Gheorghe Tecuci and Mihai Boicu, Computer Science and Learning Agents Center, were awarded a $700,000 grant by the Air Force Research Laboratory for the project "Intelligent Assistants for Distributed Knowledge Acquisition, Validation, and Maintenance." Fifty-four research teams competed for this award by proposing advanced knowledge acquisition approaches for allowing subject matter experts to enter their knowledge efficiently into knowledge-based reasoning systems, with minimal help from knowledge engineers.

School of Management

Sharon Brown-Hruska

Sharon Brown-Hruska, Finance, was appointed by President George Bush to serve as acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Brown-Hruska was previously a CFTC commissioner and will take over the duties of the outgoing chairman until Bush appoints a permanent replacement.

Return to Main Gazette Page