Awards and Accolades
Wolfgang Fink, associate professor of biomedical engineering and electrical and computer engineering
Floyd "Ski" Chilton, professor in the School of Nutritional Sciences and Wellness
Jenny Zamora-Garcia, an oral health professional in the Coconino County Cooperative Extension office, often dresses as the tooth fairy to entertain children.
Vision research organization selects Wolfgang Fink as fellow
The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology has selected Wolfgang Fink, associate professor of biomedical engineering and electrical and computer engineering, as a member of its 2023 class of fellows. He will be honored with Silver Fellow status at the organization's annual conference in April in New Orleans.
Fink is the inaugural holder of the Edward and Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair in Microelectronics and the founder and director of the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory. He has more than 260 publications and holds 25 U.S. and foreign patents.
Fink's research interests include artificial vision and vision prostheses, human and brain-macine interfaces, smart service systems, autonomous systems, biomedical engineering for health care and computer-optimized design. He is also founder and director of the University's Center for Informatics and Telehealth in Medicine.
The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology bills itself as the largest eye and vision research organization in the world, with a membership of nearly 10,000 researchers from more than 75 countries.
Each fellow will receive a medal, lapel pin, certificate and ribbon.
Read more about Fink's recognition on the College of Engineering website.
University nutrition expert named to National Academy of Inventors
University of Arizona professor Floyd "Ski" Chilton has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional distinction awarded to academic inventors.
Chilton is a professor in the School of Nutritional Sciences and Wellness in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and is director of the University's Center for Precision Nutrition and Wellness.
The NAI Fellows Program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.
Chilton's 40-year research career has focused on precision, or personalized, health and disease prevention, addressing racial health disparities and, more recently, analyzing different types of complex data using high-resolution statistics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. He has more than 160 scientific publications, is an inventor on more than 30 patents, and has received continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health for the past 35-plus years.
He will be inducted the 12th Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Inventors on June 27 in Washington, D.C.
Read more about the honor in this story on the University of Arizona News website.
Zamora-Garcia named Flagstaff Citizen of the Year
Jenny Zamora-Garcia, an oral health professional in the Coconino County Cooperative Extension office, has been named the Flagstaff Female Citizen of the Year by the Arizona Daily Sun.
The honor recognizes her decades of service as a dental hygienist and volunteer in the community. In addition to performing screenings for schoolchildren through the cooperative extension office, Zamora-Garcia has worked with multiple organizations to provide dental care to low-income families
The Arizona Daily Sun has been sponsoring the Flagstaff Citizen of the Year awards for more than 60 years. The awards are presented in three categories: Male Citizen of the Year, Female Citizen of the Year and Organization of the Year. The publication announced this year's winners in a series of stories over the last few days of 2022. Zamora-Garcia and the other honorees will be recognized at a banquet on Feb. 2.