Awards & Accolades
Andrei Sanov
Susan Brown
Jeff Pyun (left) and Robert Norwood shared an Arizona Technology Council" nnovator of the Year award.
Manisha Sharma
Nancy Odegaard (left), head of preservation at Arizona State Museum, received the University of Canberra Chancellor's Alumni Award.
Congratulations to these recent honorees.
Sanov Elected as American Physical Society Fellow
Andrei Sanov, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been elected to fellowship with the American Physical Society. The society announced its 2017 fellows this past fall.
To be elected, members must have made exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise. Sanov's contributions to the field of anion spectroscopy helped earn him the fellowship, according to the APS.
Sanov began working at the UA in 1999 as an assistant professor in what was then known as the Department of Chemistry. Since 2014, he has served as the associate department head for education and academic affairs.
He won the College of Science's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2016.
Brown Receives Fellow Award From Association for Information Systems
Susan Brown, head of the Department of Management Information Systems in the Eller College of Management, has been given the Association of Information Systems' Fellow Award.
The award, presented in early December during a ceremony at the International Conference of Information Systems in Seoul, South Korea, recognizes outstanding contributions to the information systems field through research, teaching and service.
Brown's contributions to AIS have included a variety of editorial positions, overseeing a number of journals on information systems, according to AIS. At the UA, she also serves as the McClelland Professor of Management Information Systems.
"Susan Brown is an exceptional scholar as she has a stellar publication record and still she has found the time to work in leadership roles in AIS conferences and her department and for mentoring doctoral students through doctoral consortia," Matti Rossi, president of AIS, said in a statement.
Brown joins three other Eller colleagues who have received AIS Fellow Awards: Paulo Goes, Eller College of Management dean; Joe Valacich, professor of management information systems; and Jay Nunamaker, Regents' Professor of Management Information Systems, Soldwedel Chair in Management Information Systems and director of the Center for the Management of Information.
Pyun and Norwood Share Innovator of the Year Award
Collaboration between faculty members in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the College of Optical Sciences helped earn the pair an Innovator of the Year Award from the Arizona Technology Council.
Jeffrey Pyun, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Robert Norwood, a professor of optical sciences, were named winners in the academia category at the council's 2017 Governor's Celebration of Innovation awards gala in late November. The Arizona Technology Council aims to connect Arizona's technology community to further the state as a national technology hub.
Pyun and Norwood were recognized for their collaboration to create a type of plastic that changes the cost and weight of infrared optics, according to judging materials provided by the council. The plastics are inexpensive and easy to manufacture, and are uniquely suited for lenses, windows and hyperspectral imaging for food and chemical-agent identification. The germanium and chalcogenide glass typically used for infrared imaging is complex, costly and toxic to produce.
Judges called the new material "a fundamentally disruptive technology," adding that it could someday be paired with smartphones to create heat-sensing apps, such as one that could detect potentially harmful gases and vapors.
Sharma Named Art Educator of the Year by Arizona Art Education Association
Manisha Sharma, an assistant professor of art, has been named an Educator of the Year by the Arizona Art Education Association. Sharma was honored at the AAEA's 2017 conference in November.
Among those who wrote recommendations for Sharma were two School of Art colleagues, associate professors Ryan Shin and Lisa Hochtritt, who noted Sharma's contributions outside the university.
"Her strong commitment to teaching at her university, including numerous community services in public library, museums, and non-profit organizations, shows her dedication as a teacher to work with many levels of learners beyond the classroom settings," Shin wrote. He added that Sharma has an "ideal track record" of art education research that's been published in a variety of journal articles and book chapters, and presented around the world.
Hochtritt also noted Sharma's use of tools like social media to engage all of her students, despite their different learning styles.
"In addition to all of Dr. Sharma's accomplishments and accolades, she is genuinely a kind and caring person who is a true pleasure to have as a friend and colleague," Hochtritt added.
Sharma's award was in the higher education division.
Odegaard Receives University of Canberra Chancellor's Alumni Award
Nancy Odegaard, the head of preservation at Arizona State Museum and professor of anthropology and of materials science and engineering, has been given the Chancellor's Alumni Award by the University of Canberra in Australia. The award was announced in November.
The award recognizes an alumnus' "outstanding impact and achievement." Odegaard received her doctoral degree in applied science, natural and physical sciences, from the university in 1997.
The University of Canberra, in a statement, noted Odegaard's involvement in several "momentous occasions in history," including her participation on a three-member team in 2007 that analyzed the famous human ancestor discovered in Africa in 1974, later named Lucy.
Odegaard has been head of preservation at Arizona State Museum since 1983.
We want to know about your good news. If you, your team or a colleague has won any major awards, been honored nationally or internationally, or accomplished some other major feat that deserves recognition, let us know about it.
To submit your news, please send us an email with the following information:
- Name of the person, team or unit receiving the honor with full UA titles.
- Information about the award/honor and the organization that granted it. Please include a link to the official announcement of the award/honor.When the honor was announced and when it will be presented (or was presented).
- A photo of the honoree. If others appear in the photo, please provide their names and identifying information, such as their UA title or other affiliation.
Questions? Contact Lo Que Pasa at uaatwork@email.arizona.edu.