Clinton nominates Penn Stater
to the National Science Board

President Clinton will nominate Nina V. Fedoroff, the Willaman Professor of Life Sciences and director of the Biotechnology Institute and the Life Science Consortium, as a member of the National Science Board (NSB). Clinton also intends to nominate Diana S. Natalicio, president of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) since 1988, to the board.

From 1978 to 1995, Fedoroff was a staff scientist in the embryology department of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and was assistant professor, associate professor and full professor in the biology department of Johns Hopkins University. In 1990, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and served its council from 1991 to 1994. She also is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ms. Fedoroff has received numerous awards for her scientific achievements, including a National Institutes of Health Merit Award and the Howard Taylor Ricketts Award in 1990. She was named an Outstanding Contemporary Woman Scientist by the New York Academy of Sciences in 1992 and was chosen as one of its 50 most outstanding alumni by the Damon Runyan-Walter Winchel Foundation in 1996.

Fedoroff received her B.S. from Syracuse University and her Ph.D. from Rockefeller University.

The NSB was created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 and establishes policies of the foundation.

Shenango announces
awards for top teachers

Wendy Middlemiss, assistant professor of human development and family studies at Penn State Shenango, has received the "Teacher of the Year" award for 1998-99 at that campus, while Max Shellenberger, instructor of mathematics, was named "Adjunct Teacher of the Year" at Shenango.

The Teacher of the Year award was instituted at the Shenango campus in 1984. The Adjunct Teacher of the Year award was established in 1998. Both recipients of these awards are chosen through a series of steps that include nomination and recommendation by students and by a panel of the nominee's peers, a member of the Penn State Shenango Advisory Board, a Faculty Senate officer, and the student government president.

Middlemiss joined the faculty at the Shenango campus in fall 1998 to teach the upper-level courses of the campus' first, four-year baccalaureate degree program in human development and family studies. As one of her students stated, "Her style gives students the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills, and she inspires us to achieve academic excellence in our performance."

Middlemiss is the campus' co-adviser for the Human Development and Family Studies Club, vice-chair of the Faculty Senate, and a member on the Faculty Affairs Committee. She is presently working on a funded research project that involves an intergenerational tutoring program based in Mercer County. She is a member of several professional organizations and associations, and has received several honors throughout her career, including both the Central Missouri State University "Excellence in Service Award" and the "Psychology Professor of the Year" in 1996.

Shellenberger has been an instructor at Penn State Shenango since 1987. He was chosen for this award because, as one student stated, "Mr. Shellenberger is an excellent instructor. He is very conscientious and truly dedicated to his profession and his students."

In addition to teaching at the Shenango campus, Shellenberger is a mathematics teacher at Liberty High School in Youngstown, a PRAXIS III teacher assessor for the state of Ohio, and teaches courses at Thiel College in Greenville.

He received his bachelor's degree in mathematics and education from Anderson College in Indiana and a master's degree in mathematics from Ball State University in Indiana.

Earth and Mineral Sciences
recognizes three stellar employees

The College of Earth and Mineral Sciences has recognized three of its employees for their exemplary job performance.

Kelly Henry, Debra Sipe and Dennis Walizer received Outstanding Performance Awards in 1999 in recognition of the enthusiasm, integrity and dedication with which they perform their duties, and the cooperation and creativity they demonstrate in contributing to an efficient and effective workplace atmosphere.

Since the reorganization of the Department of Energy and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Henry has accepted numerous new responsibilities as the writer/editor and publisher for the department. She creates and produces the department's newsletter and Web site, assists with special event planning, department lectures and the annual Student Awards Banquet. She also serves as the department's alumni coordinator and its continuing and distance education coordinator.

Sipe has served as the administrative assistant to Dean John Dutton since 1986. During that time, her organizational and communication skills, not to mention her patience, have been tested. Nominators praised her for her general knowledge of her job and the University.

Walizer's responsibilities encompass mass spectrometer maintenance and troubleshooting, lab supervision, training students and serving as back-up building supervisor. Walizer was praised by nominators for his initiative, resourcefulness and dedication.