The following awards were presented during Commencement on May 29:
For the last 26 years, Brown's graduating seniors have chosen members of the faculty or administration to receive these citations - expressions of respect and appreciation for individuals from whom the classes received outstanding support, guidance and teaching. Originally called Senior Citations, the awards were renamed Barrett Hazeltine Citations in 1985 in tribute to the engineering professor who had received the honor 13 times. This year, the Class of 2000 selected:
Mark Bear, professor of neuroscience. A faculty member since 1986, he is the University's only Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. One of his classes, Neuroscience 1, is one of Brown's most popular courses. A scientist whose research has produced numerous insights into brain functions, such as memory and vision, Bear is also known as a compelling lecturer. His citation reads, in part:
"Professor Bear, as a member of the BioMed/Neuroscience Department, you are challenged with the task of presenting a highly complex subject to students in courses ranging from the most introductory to the most advanced. The immense praise you receive from students at all levels of their academic careers demonstrates that you consistently meet this challenge with great success."
Howard Chudacoff, professor of history. Chudacoff has taught at Brown since 1970. A specialist in the American family and social mobility, he is a former chairman of the Department of History and co-chair of the American Civilization Program. Students describe Chudacoff, the author of several books, as a "gifted lecturer, quite charming and above all, funny." His citation reads, in part:
"Always ready with a joke, even your early morning classes are eagerly attended in anticipation of your unceasing humor. Your knowledge of and care for your subject matter, however, are no joke. Your open style and obvious enthusiasm for American history create a dynamic and energetic classroom environment."
James McIlwain, M.D., professor of neuroscience, received the School of Medicine Senior Citation. He was selected by members of the school's graduating class. The citation reads:
"As our teacher, you have represented the consummate physician-scientist. Your extensive knowledge and pure fascination with science are coupled with compassion, human caring, and a wonderful sense of humor. You have helped us unravel and marvel at the complexity of the human brain, and you have inspired us to achieve a similar level of complexity in ourselves."
This award honors outstanding contributions to the Graduate School. It is named for the recipients of Brown's first two doctorates in 1889. Sheila Curran, director of career planning services; Beverly Ehrich, career counselor; Emily Troiano, career resource librarian; and the Career Services office were chosen by the Graduate Student Council to receive this award because of their "important role in shaping the futures of graduate students."
"By choosing to focus on career services for graduate students, you provide resources that are vital to their professional development. Through advocacy and example, you have fostered the realization that graduate students at Brown are a distinct population with needs and aspirations that are sometimes very different from those of their undergraduate colleagues," the citation read.
This award recognizes outstanding research work presented in doctoral dissertations. Academic departments nominated finalists, and faculty members of the University Research Council selected winners. The following students received a $2,000 honorarium and a certificate:
John Francis Bruno, biology and medicine: "Macroecology of New England Cobble Beach Plant Communities." Bruno will teach in Mexico this summer for Cornell University and expects to begin a tenure-track teaching position in the fall at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
David Lindgren Gehrenbeck, Slavic languages: "Decembrist (Self-)Mythification." Gehrenbeck, who is a recipient of the Olive Watson Presidential Award for excellence in teaching, will begin his career in foreign service as a political officer with the U.S. Department of State.
Mihail Mihailescu, physics: "Investigation of Gravity and Large N Conformal Field Theory." He has accepted a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Center for Theoretical Physics at Texas A & M University.
Tiemen Woutersen, economics: "Essays on the Integrated Hazard and Orthogonality Concepts." Woutersen has accepted a tenure-track position as assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.
About 500 graduate students serve as teaching assistants. A faculty committee chose four award winners. The awards included a $2,500 honorarium and a certificate. They were presented during Graduate School exercises on Lincoln Field, to:
Rabi Bohidar, geological sciences. "You take stone-cold courses such as `Physical Hydrology' and `Environmental and Engineering Geophysics' and make them approachable and understandable to undergraduates with a wide range of science backgrounds," the citation read. "Your students rave about how you drop your lab work to help them, even on the eve of your own thesis progress report....As one professor remarked, he wishes only for an up-and-coming graduate student with a fraction of your merits to pick up the torch of teaching after you leave."
Rebecca Cole Heinowitz, comparative literature. "In all of your courses, you made certain your role was one of a facilitator, rather than simply a provider of knowledge, and that the role of the students was that of doer, not passive recipient," the citation read. "In both literature and language courses, you taught students how to learn, inspiring them to map their own intellectual journeys. You possess the ability to know more than anyone in the room, yet at the same time to empower your students to formulate their own approaches to texts."
M. Shane Heschel, biology and medicine. "You have both taught science to, and learned science from, your students - by your own pedagogical design," the citation read. "In your ecology and evolutionary biology courses, you have blossomed into a model teacher and mentor, with a toolbox full of tricks that can help students with different learning styles develop a more complex understanding of the course material. You are brave enough to have students evaluate you after any given lecture and at mid-semester, in addition to a final evaluation, thus constantly assessing your evolution as an instructor. One professor rated you as the best teacher among all the graduate students she has worked with in her 18 years at Brown. "
Kirsten Ostherr, American civilization. "You have masterfully explored American civilization as seen through the lens of film and television," the citation read. "In every classroom and office discussion, you helped your students hoist their intellectual sledgehammers and tear down their mental Berlin Walls separating academic work from the `real world.' ...You challenged them to design and defend their ideal television network, from demographic targeting to programming, thus enabling them to think and act critically and creatively.... Your students may do more than just change channels; they may go on to change the direction of American television, thanks to your unique vision."
Three people are the recipients of this year's Distinguished Graduate School Alumnus/a Award: Ingrid Carlbom (Ph.D. '79), head of the Visual Communications Research Department at Lucent Technologies, Bell Laboratories; Isabelle de Courtivron (Ph.D. '73), professor of French studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Richard Roth (Ph.D. '76), professor of pharmacology at Stanford University.
Originally called a Graduate Citation and later renamed at President Vartan Gregorian's request, the award was established in 1978 by President Howard Swearer on the recommendation of a faculty committee chaired by then-Dean of the Graduate School Ernest Frerichs. The committee recommended that the University recognize at Commencement each year those Graduate School alumni/ae "who have made distinguished contributions to society through their scholarship and related professional activities.