Kudos

Recognition of the awards, honors, and recent publications of the GW faculty and staff.

May 8, 2010

George Washington statue in University Yard

Acknowledgements

Colonials Sports Marketing earned three "Best of" awards for promotional initiatives at the North American Collegiate Marketing Association annual conference June 23. The office, which provides communications and marketing support to the GW Department of Athletics, earned gold awards for best ticket sales piece and sponsorship program, and a silver award for single newspaper display ad.

GW’s “Green Living” initiative received the 2010 Excellence in Sustainability Award from the American College Personnel Association’s (ACPA) Commission on Housing and Residential Life at the 2010 ACPA National Conference in Boston, Mass. The collaboration of GW student organizations, the Residential Life Services Cluster and more than 12 administrative departments, including GW's Office of Sustainability, GW Housing Programs, Facilities Management, and Planning and Environmental Management, has resulted in the Green Living Initiative Committee, which sponsors a wide range of environmentally-oriented activities in GW’s residence halls in support of GW’s overall commitment to sustainability.

Gregg Brazinsky, associate professor of history and international affairs and Henry Farrell, associate professor of political science and international affairs, have received 2010-11 fellowship awards from the Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Sgt. Francis Williams, Lt. Bessie Burrus, Capt. Darryl Johnson, and Ofc. Kevin Poles of the GW Police Department Honor Guard were selected to represent the university at the 22nd annual candlelight vigil at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial May 13. U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. led the lighting of candles and reading of the names of 324 law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Jennifer Thacker, national president of the Concerns of Police Survivors, also participated in the annual tribute, part of the National Police Week observance in the nation’s capital.

Information Systems and Services, GW's technology support operations, will be housed in a newly named organization, the Division of Information Technology. GW’s Division of Information Technology works with students, faculty, staff and departments across the university to provide advanced technology solutions.

Jonathan Chaves, professor of Chinese, was a discussant at the historic conference, “Cultural Crossings: China and Beyond in the Medieval Period,” at the University of Virginia March 11-13. This conference represented the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of the cultural interactions amongst China, Japan and the three kingdoms into which the Korean peninsula was divided. Chaves’ remarks on the “Exchanges with Northeastern Neighbors” panel highlighted the remarkable success of the Japanese in adopting Chinese civilization in characteristically Japanese ways.

Jonathan Gil Harris, professor of English, was recognized by Choice magazine for his book “Untimely Matter in the Time of Shakespeare,” which was named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2009.

Joel Kuipers, deputy chair of the Department of Anthropology, received a Fulbright Award for 2010-11.

Joost Santos, assistant professor of engineering management and systems engineering, presented a talk at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory seminar March 4 titled “Interdependent Economic Impacts of Degraded Workforce Productivity.” He discussed the application of economic input-output modeling to regional disaster preparedness and recovery. This research is funded by his ongoing National Science Foundation grant.

Jane Shore, professor of English, won a Poets Prize for her book “A Yes or No Answer.”

Andrew M. Smith II, assistant professor of classics and history, won a $35,000 Loeb Classical Library Foundation Grant from Harvard University for fieldwork in Jordan.

Appointments

Jeff Aron has been appointed executive director for development of GW's College of Professional Studies. Mr. Aron previously served as the senior director for corporate, foundation and public outreach at the Federation of American Scientists, a public policy “think-tank” focused on nuclear proliferation, education and housing technology.

Edward Martin has been named The George Washington University’s deputy chief information officer. He will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Division of Information Technology (IT). Prior to GW, Mr. Martin was deputy chief information office at American University, where he was responsible for leading the day-to-day IT operating environment, including customer support and related services, network operations and engineering and systems engineering services.

Honey Nashman, associate professor of human services and sociology, was named to Greater DC Cares "Class of Change 2009" for her leadership in public service.

Kirsten Rasmussen, director of stewardship and donor communications in Georgetown University's advancement office, was named GW’s assistant vice president for stewardship.

Gregory D. Squires, professor of sociology and professor of public policy and public administration, was appointed to the D.C. Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

David Synan, director of client services and acting managing director of the Marvin Center and University Conferences, was promoted to managing director of the Marvin Center and University Conferences.

Publications

Michael E. Brown, dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs, edited the book “Going Nuclear: Nuclear Proliferation and International Security in the 21st Century.”

Yvonne Captain, associate professor of Latin American film and international affairs and executive director of Phi Beta Delta, recently published an article titled “Brazil’s Africa Policy under Lula” in The Global South. She was also recently elected to the advisory board of the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area.

Michael Keidar, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and his students published “Mechanism of carbon nanostructure synthesis in arc plasma,” an invited review article, in Physics of Plasmas.

James Lee, professor of engineering and applied science, Professor of Engineering and Applied Science and his graduate students published “Multiscale modeling of fracture of MgO: Sensitivity of interatomic potentials,” in Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics.

Joost Santos, assistant professor of engineering management and systems engineering, and Mark Orsi, GW master’s student, published a paper on modeling workforce productivity losses in the aftermath of a disaster, titled “Estimating Workforce-Related Economic Impact of a Pandemic on the Commonwealth of Virginia,” in IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

Akos Vertes, deputy chair and professor of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology; Yetrib Hathout, assistant professor of pediatrics and immunology; and Bindesh Shrestha, post-doctoral scientist,  along with three other research colleagues, had their article, “Direct analysis of lipids and small metabolites in mouse brain tissue by AP IR-MALDI and reactive LAESI mass spectrometry” picked as the cover article in Analyst, the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry journal. This is their second cover article this year.

Paul Williams, associate director of the Security Policy Studies program, edited the book “The International Politics of Mass Atrocities.”