Awards granted to outstanding junior faculty

IU has named its 2012-13 Outstanding Junior Faculty, giving them support to continue research they’ve started within their school or department. 

The awards this year will support the creation of innovative textile art and research on public investments in energy, the worldwide loss of costal mangrove forests, the development of anti-malarial drugs, the relationship between vision and balance and the appropriateness of cancer screenings, according to a March 25 press release.

“The awards are given out to recognize our best faculty members,” said Sarita Soni, vice provost for research. “We want to keep them, so we recognize them. Every year we recognize four to six people.”

This year, Soni said IU has chosen six faculty members from four different departments and schools on campus.

“I was interested to see that we have four schools represented on campus,” she said. “We have the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the School of Optometry, the School of Public Health and the College of Arts and Sciences. We often have many nominations from the College of Arts and Sciences, but it’s nice to have other schools compete too.”

The Outstanding Junior Faculty Awards are given out to untenured professors who do a great job of teaching with outstanding programs, Soni said.

The professors must have taught at IU for at least two years but less than six in order to be eligible for the award, and they must be nominated.

Once chosen, the awards they receive are given as funding for research.
 
Soni also said the faculty who receive these awards often go on to do great things, even beyond IU.

“The candidates end up getting national recognition,” Soni said.

This year there are six recipients.

The first is Silas Cook, who has worked in the department of chemistry since 2009. His lab group has been working to create efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly reactions to enable production of more affordable medications.

The second is Shirin Hassan, who has been with the School of Optometry since 2007. The Outstanding Junior Faculty award will support her research examining the relationship between peripheral vision field loss and balance problems in older adults.
 
Beth Meyerson is an assistant professor in the School of Public Health.  Her award will help support a national cervical cancer screening policy adoption study of state programs.

Rowland Ricketts III has been with the College of Arts and Sciences since 2008, working as a textiles faculty member. His award will be used to explore the controlled fading of dye in clothing.

Sanya Carley has been with the SPEA since 2010. Her award will support research on state-by-state energy investments.

Rinku Roy Chodhury has been a part of the College and Arts and Sciences since 2008.

Her award will support cross-continental analyses of costal mangroves in Mexico and Bangladesh.