Commencement 1998

Teaching, research awards honor graduate students, faculty

The new Joukowsky Family Foundation Outstanding Dissertation Award honors four graduate students' doctoral research; the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Teaching honor four graduate students; the School of Medicine Senior Citation honors an anatomy professor; and an associate dean of Graduate School wins the Wilson-Deblois Award.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- In addition to the more than 2,000 degrees to be granted at Commencement this weekend, a handful of graduate students will receive extra recognition for outstanding research and teaching during Commencement ceremonies Monday, May 25. Also, students will present special awards to honor two members of the faculty and staff.

Joukowsky Family Foundation Outstanding Dissertation Award

A new award this year recognizes outstanding research work presented in Ph.D. dissertations in the humanities, social sciences and physical or life sciences. Finalists were nominated by academic departments; faculty members of the University Research Council selected the winners. Along with their doctoral degrees, four graduate students will also receive this new research award, which includes a $2,000 honorarium and a certificate, during Graduate School exercises at 9:15 a.m., Monday, May 25, on Lincoln Field:

• Zhiyi Chi, applied mathematics: "Probability Models for Complex Systems"
• Shu-Huei Hung, geological sciences: "Seismic Wave Propagation in the MELT Experiment Area: Probing the Nature of Intraplate Earthquakes, Lithospheric Anisotropy and Mantle Upwelling in the Vicinity of the Southern East Pacific Rise"
• Matthew McGrath, philosophy: "Between Deflationism and the Correspondence Theory"
• Andrew Stoesser Veech, anthropology: "Signatures of Gentility: Assessing Status Archaeologically in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Fairfax County, Virginia"

Presidential Awards for Excellence in Teaching

Some 500 graduate students each year serve as teaching assistants to the faculty. This year, a faculty committee selected one award winner each from the fields of humanities and social sciences and two award winners from the physical or life sciences. The awards, which come with a $2,500 honorarium and certificate, will be presented during Graduate School exercises at 9:15 a.m., Monday, May 25, on Lincoln Field, to:

• Danielle Lynn Jamison, mathematics
• Jennifer Jang, American civilization
• Victor P. Zabielski, geological sciences
• Mark Cohen, theatre, speech and dance

School of Medicine Senior Citation

Ted Goslow, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, has won the most prestigious award presented during the medical school graduation. The graduating class of the medical school selected Goslow for teaching "all of the wonder of human anatomy, in all its myriad details, with an energy and a dedication that are unrivaled," according to the citation. The award will be presented at the University Commencement ceremony, approximately 11:15 a.m., Monday, May 25, on The College Green.

Wilson-Deblois Award

Given this year for only the second time, the award is named for the recipients of Brown's first two doctorates in 1889. The award honors outstanding contributions to the Graduate School, and the recipient is chosen by the Graduate Student Council. For his 25 years of outstanding service - especially in recruiting, mentoring and counseling minorities - Bernard Bruce, who is retiring this summer as associate dean of the Graduate School, will be presented with the award at the University Commencement ceremony at 11:15 a.m., Monday, May 25, on The College Green.