Five assistant professors have been announced as the 2015-16 Outstanding Junior Faculty award winners.
This year’s recipients came from the astronomy, art history, mathematics, public affairs and sociology departments at IU.
The award is presented by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, according to an IU press release. It celebrates tenure-track faculty who work on nationally significant research projects or innovative programs.
The winners were Jennifer Brass from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Jessica Calarco from the Department of Sociology, Margaret Graves from the Department of Art History, Noah Snyder from the Department of Mathematics and Enrico Vesperini from the Department of Astronomy.
“I am thrilled that the campus is able to recognize and provide support for the excellent research and scholarship that these award recipients are conducting,” said Eliza Pavalko, vice provost for faculty and academic affairs, in the release. “Selecting just five Outstanding Junior Faculty from among the many extraordinary nominees was a challenge for the committee, but our awardees stand out for the excellence, originality and impact of their research.”
Any faculty working to earn tenure on the Bloomington campus are eligible for nomination. Winners receive a $15,000 award to invest in future research and projects.
Brass became part of IU faculty in 2010. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley the same year.
Her research focuses on service provision and governance in developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. Brass’ first book, “Allies or Adversaries? NGOs and the State in Africa,” will be available from Cambridge University Press in 2016.
She received an IU SPEA Teaching Award for Excellence in graduate instruction in 2014.
Calarco has been part of the Department of Sociology since 2012 and received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania the same year.
Her research focuses on issues related to education, social class stratification, family, children and youth, and culture and social interaction. She has published her work in journals such as the American Sociological Review and American Educational Research Journal and Social Psychology and was a recipient of IU’s Trustees Teaching Award in 2014.
Graves joined the Department of Art History in 2012 and has a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. Graves’ research focuses on art and architecture of the medieval Islamic world.
She has been awarded several major fellowships, including some from the Institute for Advanced Study and the British Academy. This academic year, Graves was honored with membership to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
She is the 2013 recipient of IU College of Arts and Sciences’ Trustees Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Snyder joined the IU Department of Mathematics in 2012. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2009. Snyder was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University and a visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics from 2009 to 2012.
Snyder received the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for his research on tensor categories and for his outreach work.
Vesperini became part of the Department of Astronomy in 2012. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, in 1994.
He had postdoctoral fellowships at University of Edinburgh, University of Massachusetts and Michigan State University. His research focuses on the formation and evolution of star clusters and specializes in globular clusters, some of the oldest objects in the Milky Way galaxy.
Taylor Telford
