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8/29/08

Faculty, Staff Receive Awards At St. Lawrence University Convocation

CANTON - St. Lawrence University faculty and staff received awards for outstanding service at Convocation, held on campus August 28, marking the start of the academic year.

Assistant Professor of Biology Ana Estevez received the J. Calvin Keene Award; Associate Professor of Global Studies John Collins was given the Louis and Frances Maslow Award; and Martha Dudley, coordinator of general and organic chemistry labs, received the John P. Taylor Award.

The Keene Award was established in 1975 and is given to a faculty member in recognition of "high standards of personal scholarship, effective teaching and moral concern." Estevez holds a bachelor's degree from SUNY Binghamton and earned the Ph.D. in physiology from Wayne State University. She did a post-doctorate fellowship at Vanderbilt University, where she worked as a research assistant professor until joining the St. Lawrence faculty in 2005. The National Science Foundation awarded her a competitive Research Starter Grant in 2006, to study how nerve cells generate calcium signals to communicate, using a tiny nematode (a roundworm) called C. elegans. Estevez has been a mentor to many students for independent research projects, both in biology and neuroscience.

The Maslow Award goes to the faculty member who has shown "the most interest in and understanding of the education and welfare of the student body as a whole." A graduate of Wesleyan University, Collins earned his master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He is the co-editor of the 2002 NYU Press book Collateral Language: A User's Guide to America's New War and the 2004 NYU Press book Occupied by Memory, exploring the memories of Palestinians in the "intifada generation." With students in his classes, Collins created a blog called The Weave, "a public intellectual project that brings together a range of perspectives on local, national and global issues and on mainstream and independent media coverage of those issues," to which he contributes regularly.

The John P. "Jack" Taylor Distinguished Career Service Award was established in 1995 at Taylor's retirement as dining services director, recognizing distinguished service to the University by an administrator who has worked at least 12 years at St. Lawrence and who sustains the high standards of performance exemplified by Taylor. Dudley is a graduate of Smith College, and earned a master's degree in education from St. Lawrence. She has been a teaching assistant for many years in laboratory courses in general chemistry and organic chemistry, introducing students to research and laboratory methods. In recent years, Dudley has worked on developing experiments for students that produce less hazardous waste materials.

Also recognized at Convocation were faculty entered on continuing tenure: Associate Professor of History Donna Alvah, Associate Professor of Fine Arts Chandreyi Basu, Associate Professor of English Sarah Gates, Associate Professor of Music David Henderson, Associate Professor of History Evelyn Powell Jennings, Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures Marcella Salvi, Associate Professor of Global Studies Martha Chew Sanchez and Associate Professor of Fine Arts Melissa Schulenberg. In addition, Roy Caldwell, modern languages and literatures; Joseph Erlichman, biology; Mark MacWilliams, religious studies; and Assis Malaquias, government; were recognized for promotion to the rank of full professor.

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