UIC people: awards and honors
James Pellegrino, co-director of the Learning Sciences Research Institute, was honored for outstanding achievement in educational research.
Awards
James Pellegrino, co-director of the Learning Sciences Research Institute, received the 2015 Educational Research Award from the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. The award honors a scholar’s outstanding achievement in educational research that improved children’s learning and understanding. Pellegrino was also selected to receive the Educational Testing Service’s Samuel J. Messick Memorial Lecture Award for 2016. He will speak at the Language Testing Research Colloquium in Palermo, Sicily, in June 2016.
Aram Kim, clinical assistant professor of restorative dentistry,won first place in the John J. Sharry Research Competition of the American College of Prosthodontics. The competition recognizes original research in prosthodontics.
Roger Weissberg, NoVo Foundation endowed chair in social and emotional learning and distinguished professor of psychology and education, received the 2015 Social and Emotional Learning Champion Award from Dancing Classrooms. The nonprofit organization offers a proprietary SEL-based ballroom dance curriculum for upper elementary and middle school students in the U.S. and internationally.
Saria Awadalla, clinical assistant professor of biostatistics, will receive the School of Public Health’s 2015 Bernard H. Baum Golden Apple Award at commencement. The winner is selected by public health students.
Sydney Blankers, a master’s degree student in urban planning and policy, received one of four Graduate Student Policy Awards granted nationally by the Ecological Society of America. The award, based on Blankers’ résumé and summary of Illinois’ benefits from federal ecological funding, includes an invitation to the organization’s Congressional Visits Days next month.
Honors
Kelly LeRoux, associate professor of public administration in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, was named associate editor of the Public Administration Review, a journal published by the American Society for Public Administration.
Ten UIC students were selected to attend University of Illinois Undergraduate Research Day April 30 in Springfield. They are among 30 U of I students who will present their research to Illinois lawmakers to demonstrate the importance of undergraduate student research.
The students, and their advisers, are: Deborah Park, biological sciences, adviser Guofei Zhou, pediatrics; Nadine Kahl, biological sciences, adviser Alessandra Passarotti, psychiatry; Garima Shukla, biological sciences, adviser Guy Adami, oral medicine and diagnostic sciences; Matthew Reeder, civil engineering, adviser Sybil Derrible, civil and materials engineering; Lenore Tahara-Eckl, psychology, adviser
Sangeetha Madhavan, physical therapy; Erin Kohnke, neuroscience, adviser Kara Morgan-Short, psychology and Hispanic and Italian studies; Aya Qutub, nutrition, adviser Lisa Tussing-Humphreys, medicine; Mary Cunningham, civil engineering, adviser Didem Ozevin, civil and materials engineering; Abdullah Adil, biochemistry, adviser Jordi Cabana, chemistry; and Oluwadamilola Bankole, biochemistry, adviser Brian Kay, biological sciences.
Thomas C. Hart, professor of periodontics and director of craniofacial population sciences research in the College of Dentistry, was named director of the American Dental Association Foundation’s Volpe Research Center. The center, located on the grounds of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, conducts research in biomaterial and tissue engineering. Hart is chair of the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs. He was clinical director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.
