Awards & Accolades
Ivan Djordjevic, professor of electrical and computer engineering
Wolfgang Fink, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering
Members of the Arizona Online marketing team with their UPCEA awards. Front row, from left: Melissa Gore, senior website designer/developer, Venessa Ball, user interface and user experience designer, Rachel McCoy, marketing coordinator. Back row: Carlos Moreno, videographer, Gene Lyman, lead developer, Jana Hayhurst, director of marketing, Mayumi De La Ree, digital marketing specialist and Cathryn Andrews, interim assistant director of marketing. (Photo courtesy of Arizona Online)
Congratulations to these recent honorees.
Ivan Djordjevic named IEEE fellow
Ivan Djordjevic, professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been named a 2020 fellow of IEEE, a professional society dedicated to advancing innovation and technological excellence for the benefit of humanity. The organization announced Djordjevic's fellowship in January.
Formerly known as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE is composed of electrical and electronics engineering professionals as well as members of other industries. Fellowship is IEEE's highest grade of membership granted to fewer than 0.1% of voting IEEE members each year.
Djordjevic received the designation for his contributions to physical-layer optical communications.
Djordjevic's research areas include optical communications and networks, error control coding and quantum information processing. His current work aims to extend data rates using existing infrastructure and create more secure communication channels. He joined the University faculty in 2004 as a research assistant professor.
Wolfgang Fink named SPIE fellow
Wolfgang Fink, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been named a 2020 fellow of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. He and other new fellows were recognized earlier this month in San Francisco.
SPIE was founded as the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers. The not-for-profit society aims to "advance emerging light-based technologies through interdisciplinary information exchange, continuing education, publications, career development, and advocacy."
Its fellows are members "who have made significant scientific and technical contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of optics, photonics, and imaging." Fink's designation recognizes his "achievements in vision science for the blind and tele-ophthalmic health care worldwide."
Fink's research focuses include human and brain-machine interfaces, smart service systems, autonomous systems, biomedical engineering for health care and computer-optimized design. He holds the Edward and Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair in the College of Engineering.
John Greivenkamp, professor of optical sciences, is president of SPIE.
The event in San Francisco also recognized Roland V. Shack, professor emeritus in the James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences, and the recipient of the 1998 SPIE A.E. Conrady Award in Optical Engineering and the SPIE Gold Medal in 2004. Shack died in October.
Arizona Online wins seven marketing awards from UPCEA
Arizona Online won six awards, including the top honor, in UPCEA's 2019 Marketing Awards. The Arizona Online team was recognized at a seminar in New Orleans in December.
UPCEA is a membership association for those working in professional, continuing and online education. Its Marketing Awards recognize the "top marketing and creative work" by member institutions in the last year. Awards are divided into divisions, such as interactive media, mixed media campaign and outdoor/exhibit signage. Some divisions are further divided into categories. The awards are given in gold, silver and bronze.
Arizona Online's awards were:
- Gold in the Interactive Media Division's website category for the Arizona Online website
- Gold in the Mixed Media Campaign Division for the amAZe advertising campaign
- Silver in the Interactive Media Division's miscellaneous interactive media category for the military landing page
- Silver in the Interactive Media Division's miscellaneous interactive media category for the Start Now landing page
- Silver in the Outdoor/Exhibit Signage Division's outdoor billboard/signage category for amaAZe billboards
UPCEA's Division and Best in Show awardees are chosen from the highest-scoring gold award recipients in the award categories in each division. Arizona Online won the Mixed Media Campaign Division and Interactive Media Division awards. It won the Best in Show award for the amAZe campaign.
The awards add to another recent achievement: Arizona Online tied for No. 11 out of 353 programs in the 2020 Best Online Bachelor's Programs rankings by U.S. News & World Report, released in January.
University wins regional public relations CASE awards
The University won two Awards of Excellence from District VII of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. The awards will be presented at the Connect West 2020 conference in San Francisco in March.
The University won a gold award in the public relations and media relations projects category for a project announcing University astronomers' involvement in capturing the first image of a black hole. The project included an electronic press kit, a website featuring University experts associated with the research and 360-degree video of the telescopes that took the image. It was produced by the Office of University Communications in partnership with the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, the global network of telescopes that produced the image.
The University won a silver award in the same category for a webpage – created to mark the 50th anniversary of the moon landing – that promoted the University's involvement in the Apollo missions. The webpage, a collaboration between the University Communications and the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, served as a one-stop hub that included articles on the University's moon research, a video, an electronic press kit and a list of University events commemorating the anniversary.
CASE District VII's annual Awards of Excellence highlight best practices in fundraising, public relations, advancement services and communications. Experts throughout the district judge and select the awards. The district is made up of Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
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 University 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 University title or other affiliation.
Questions? Contact Lo Que Pasa at uaatwork@email.arizona.edu.