Awards
Penn State Intercom......August
23, 2001
Delco honors 5 for
service to the campus
Five employees at Penn
State Delaware County were recently honored for their service.
Three employees in the admissions department were awarded the campus’
Lion’s P.A.W. award. The winners are Luanne Fox, admissions counselor;
Donna Neidich, staff assistant; and Winnie Chiorazzi, staff assistant
Fox earned the award for her “untiring efforts to keep the admissions
department moving forward as they approached the end of the recruiting
season, and her can-do attitude and unfailing optimism,” according
to Deb Erie, director of outreach for the campus.
Chiorazzi was honored for her “knowledge of systems, procedures and
office needs, combined with her problem-solving approach to everything
related to good customer service,” Erie said.
Neidich was recognized because “in addition to her regular duties,
she quickly learned the admission department’s application process
for provisional and regularly admitted students, and within no time, students
were receiving office packets promptly and accurately,” according
to Erie.
Denise Ripchinski, a staff assistant in the executive office, was awarded
the John D. Vairo Service Award. The award was given in acknowledgment
of her exceptional service to the well being of the campus.
Joyce Rigby, campus registrar, was awarded the Staff Award for Outstanding
Service for 2001.
Rigby was honored for her “untiring efforts in providing for appropriate
course choices and times for campus students. Her diligence in always
assuring that Penn State quality is at the forefront and her ability to
handle faculty, staff and students with diplomacy and tact,” according
to Ed Tomezsko, campus executive officer of Penn State Delaware County.
Shenango honors 2
with teaching awards
The Penn State Shenango 2000-2001 teaching awards were announced at the campus' advisory board annual dinner meeting.
Indu S. Das, associate professor of general engineering, was awarded this year's Leonard R. Riforgiato Memorial Teaching Award and Vincent J. Lisi, instructor in philosophy, was awarded the Margaret Cunningham Foley Memorial Teaching Award.
Das joined Penn State Shenango in 1984 as an assistant professor of engineering and was promoted to associate professor in 1992. His research and special interests are in jet noise, computational flows and high speed flow. Over the years, he has been involved in sponsored research activities at NASA Lewis Research Center.
Lisi, a part-time instructor at Penn State Shenango, was hired in the fall of 1990 to teach philosophy and religious studies. In addition to teaching philosophy at the Shenango campus, Lisi teaches at Youngstown State University in its Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. He also is a professional speaker in the areas of motivation, personal growth and spirituality.
The Leonard R. Riforgiato Memorial Teaching Award, formerly the Penn State Shenango Teacher of the Year Award, is bestowed on a full-time faculty member who has been chosen through a series of steps that include nomination and recommendation from both students and the nominee's peers. Riforgiato, for whom the award was named, was an associate professor of history and the first recipient of this award. He taught at the Shenango campus for 26 years until he died in 1999.
The Margaret Cunningham Foley Memorial Teaching Award, formerly the Penn State Shenango Adjunct Teacher of the Year Award, recognizes outstanding part-time faculty at the campus. This award was established in 1998. Margaret Cunningham Foley was an English instructor at Penn State Shenango from 1967 to 1994. She died in 2000.
2 faculty members get
William Elliott fellowships
Charles Cao and Abdullah Yavas of The Smeal College of Business Administration were recently named as recipients of William Elliott Faculty Fellowships.
Cao is associate professor of finance. In addition to teaching MBA and doctoral degree courses, he researches derivative securities markets, market microstructure, mutual funds, stock repurchases and IPO lockups. His research has been published in a wide range of academic journals. He serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Financial Markets and Annals of Economics and Finance.
Yavas is professor of business administration and the research director of the Institute for Real Estate Studies. He currently serves on the Board of Science of the International Black Sea University, Republic of Georgia. Since joining the University, he has been involved in the undergraduate and graduate programs in real estate. He has been active in research and is the author or co-author of numerous articles in various real estate, finance and economics journals.
The William Elliott Fellowships provide funds to outstanding faculty members of the college whose teaching and research directly relates to the insurance industry, its business management and investment management of insurance companies. The fellowships are named in honor of the late William Elliott, former chairman of the executive committee of Philadelphia Life Insurance.
MERIT award honors work
on retrovirus assembly
John W. Wills, professor of microbiology and immunology in the College of Medicine at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, has received a MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) award from the National Institutes of Health for his laboratory's studies of retrovirus assembly and budding.
Their work has provided numerous insights on how viruses are released from the surface of infected cells. A greater understanding of this mechanism eventually may provide new ideas for how to prevent viruses from spreading. The award will provide the Wills laboratory with eight to 10 years of additional grant support, thereby allowing them to focus less of their effort on the preparation and submission of grant applications and more on virus research.
MERIT awards are reserved for outstanding individual investigators, but researchers themselves cannot apply for these awards. Instead, they must be nominated by their program directors at NIH, and the decision for approval is subsequently made by the NIH Advisory Board.
Wills was recognized for his work having been continuously funded by the National Cancer Institute for 14 years, the last 10 of which have been at the University, and having received a score in the top 0.5 percent on his grant renewal application.
Air Force ROTC is best
detachment in nation
The Penn State Air Force ROTC was selected by Headquarters, Air Force ROTC at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama for the 2000/2001 National Right of Line Award.
This award gives the unit the distinction of being the best detachment among 143 Air Force ROTC units in the nation.
The University's Air Force ROTC previously won the High Flight Award for the best detachment out of 37 units in the Northeast region and went on to compete nationally. The Right of Line Award is given to the top unit that displays the best overall academic record, retention of cadets, cadet activities, university relations, community service and innovation. The unit received the only "outstanding" rating given this year by the Air Education and Training Command's inspector general to any of the 143 Air Force ROTC detachments nationwide.
Following its inspection, the unit continued to excel with a strong academic record, more than 2,000 hours of service to the community, more than a million dollars in scholarship funding and dozens of "firsts" within ROTC and the community.
For information about the Air Force ROTC program at the University, check the Web site at http://www.airforce.psu.edu.
Commonwealth College honors
Penn Staters of the Quarter
Each location of the Commonwealth College recognizes an outstanding faculty member, staff member or student each calendar quarter. Below are the individuals who have made the greatest contributions to their locations of the Commonwealth College during the months of April, May and June.
* Beaver: Gary Knott, community service officer. Knott investigated a situation that led to the identification of individuals who were charged with ethnic intimidation. In a similar case, an individual that was sending harassing e-mails to a faculty member also was identified and charged.
* Delaware County: Theresa Walls, staff assistant in instructional services. One of Walls' regular assignments is submitting the Student Rating of Teaching Effectiveness questionnaires for the faculty at the campus. Recently, she was singled out by the associate provost's office as having the fewest errors in the SRTE submission among all units of the University. This past year the SRTEs from Delaware County had zero errors.
* DuBois: Lisbeth (Libby) Hoover, Campus Health Services nurse. During the quarter, Hoover provided programming for students, faculty and staff to help them maintain and improve their health and well-being. She worked extended hours to support both on- and off-campus activities which increased the positive reputation of the campus.
* Fayette: Gina Jones, student. When the Ku Klux Klan visited the area, Jones helped spearhead the P.E.A.C.E. rally. It drew a broad cross-section of people from the campus and from the community for a day of shared fun, laughter and food. What could have been an occasion of confrontation and ignorance was turned into a day of enjoyment and good memories through her efforts, courage and conviction.
* Hazleton: Joe Fennewald, assistant librarian. In just one year, Fennewald created an atmosphere of teamwork, service and enthusiasm that was never apparent in the library before. The library has become a welcoming place for students and faculty, as well as a wonderful place to work, under his direction.
* McKeesport: Joanne Vidnovic, staff assistant for undergraduate studies in Academic Affairs. During the quarter, Vidnovic played a large part in organizing the positive initial college experience that students first receive during FTCAP. Her organizational skills and dedication ensured that FTCAP ran smoothly and the experience for the student was a positive one.
* Mont Alto: Stan Aungst, assistant professor of information sciences and technology. During spring semester Aungst guided the IST 240 class in developing the "Virtual Coconuts" project. This project was made into a case study by IBM featured on its Web site and also was taught at the Pennsylvania Governor's School for Information Sciences and Technology.
* New Kensington: Nancy Burns, staff assistant in admissions. During the quarter, Burns demonstrated commitment to the campus students by taking time to listen to their personal as well as their academic problems. She has been supportive of student activities as evidenced by her attendance at evening programs.
* Shenango: Carol Stewart, staff assistant in the Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Program. Stewart successfully compiled all the necessary materials for the accreditation team to review during the reaccreditation visit in June. The team had complete material and the results of the review were positive for the campus.
* Wilkes-Barre: Janet Rosenbaum, assistant director, Continuing Education.
During the quarter, the campus received positive feedback from students about the extended efforts made by Rosenbaum to assist them as they worked toward Penn State certificates and degrees. Many of the special efforts that she made for students were not visible to the general campus community because she manages the programs offered off-site.
* Worthington Scranton: Scott Winters, instructional service and computer specialist. Winters provided technical support to the Student Government Awards Dinner, Commencement, the Honors Convocation and the Ridge View Society Dinner. These events were literally back-to-back and all of these events were after hours and essential to the rich fiber of the campus during graduation celebrations.
* York: Deb Latzko, student. Latzko was a full-time student who graduated in May with an associate degree in IST and a 4.0 GPA. Over the past academic year she was a tutor and supplementary instructor in the Learning Center, a member of the Student Activity Fee Committee and was involved with campus retention studies. In addition to her involvement in all of these activities, she gave birth in April.