2012 Distinguished Faculty Award recipients

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Diane Ebert-May | Department of Plant Biology,
College of Natural Science

Diane Ebert-May is recognized nationally and internationally as a pioneer and leading scholar in biology education research. She has devoted her career to transforming the way college educators teach science by investigating how students learn and how instructional practice influences learning. Her research on biology education – which has shown that it is feasible to actively engage all students in classrooms both large and small – has had broad influence on science curriculum reform throughout the nation. Her research on active learning has shown that it directly helps students think about and communicate about science more effectively, ultimately ensuring that they grasp scientific concepts thoroughly. Her creation of the Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching is a tested model that has trained scientists from more than 300 institutions on how to teach college science.

Ebert-May's teaching has positively influenced countless students pursuing science and nonscience degrees. Firmly grounded in research, she brings to the classroom a deep understanding of how students learn and how teachers teach. In her classroom, students work in collaborative groups to solve problems, construct hypotheses, collect and analyze data, create models and evaluate outcomes. As one student aptly noted "[Ebert-May] is committed to helping each student learn core concepts that not only help them better understand science and math but also help them become better learners, students and scholars along the way."

Ebert-May's research has received extensive federal funding and led to invitations to serve on multiple National Science Foundation review panels; she has also served on numerous National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council boards. Her work has brought her multiple honors and awards including election as an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow.

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Syed Anwar Hashsham | Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering

Syed Anwar Hashsham is internationally known for integrating genomics and microfluidics with consumer electronics to solve issues related to human health and environmental biotechnology. His research includes the development of DNA chips to fast test for the Superbug MRSA, the development of a hand-held platform for genetic analysis, and environmental biotechnology. His early work on how microbial communities behave when faced with stress is seminal for environmental engineers working to describe community behavior in quantitative terms.

Hashsham, who has a keen eye for students' educational needs, is an excellent teacher and inspires the best in his students. "Always available" is one of the standard comments made by students when describing him. As an adviser, he encourages students to be self-learners, innovators and team players.

Hashsham collaborates with researchers from a number of disciplines—from ecology to infectious diseases to microfluidics and electronics. His work has been published in leading journals, including Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Biomedical Microdevices, Science and Environmental Science and Technology. Hashsham's work is considered novel and highly significant by his peers because it often has a direct application to environmental health for the poorest people on the planet. Additionally, his recently developed and highly innovative device, Gene-Z, can be used to detect such markers of cancer as microRNAs in places where even the very basic diagnostic tools have yet to reach. Gene-Z can also be used to detect other disease-causing pathogens in humans, animals, and plants. This highly innovative device has attracted the attention and admiration of leaders of wireless-based health diagnostics systems throughout the world.

Hashsham has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on funded grants that total more than $13 million. His research projects are supported by NIH, EPA, DHS, NSF and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

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Amy Iezzoni | Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Since joining the MSU faculty in 1981, Amy Iezzoni has distinguished herself as a researcher, plant breeder, teacher and mentor. She has dedicated her career to the study and improvement of cherries and is recognized internationally as the leading authority in cherry genetics and genomics. She has collaborated with colleagues around the world to produce a body of literature in comparative genomics, gene mapping and quantitative trait locus identification. Iezzoni's important work has extended to the tart cherry industry, particularly in Eastern Europe, where she has released varieties in conjunction with Hungarian colleagues. Iezzoni's ability to interweave basic and applied research is one of many factors that has made her program so significant and successful.

Iezzoni is an active participant in the Interdepartmental Graduate Program for Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology and has mentored numerous graduate students who have gone on to successful careers in academia, industry and government. She has been the major professor for 13 master's and nine doctoral students and has served on more than 60 M.S. and Ph.D. committees.

In addition to her renowned research on cherries, Iezzoni has been the driving force in establishing the $14.5 million USDA Rosaceae genome project to develop genomic tools for the study and improvement of Rosaceae crops (almonds, apples, apricots, blackberries, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, roses). This project involves 10 U.S. states and eight foreign countries. Her colleagues consider her "a consistent leader with a vision of where the unique relatedness of the Rosaceae species could be exploited for scientific benefit." Iezzoni's research has resulted in authorship or co-authorship of 76 refereed publications, 20 book chapters and conference proceeding articles and $18.5 million in competitive grant funding.

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Bonnie Knutson | The School of Hospitality Business, Eli Broad College of Business

Bonnie Knutson is widely considered 'the' expert in the areas of emerging consumer lifestyle trends, customer service, brand positioning and strategic marketing related to the hospitality industry. She has led research teams that developed the definitive indices for measuring service quality and the guest experience in the hospitality industry. She co-developed a new four-quadrant strategic framework for guiding and implementing marketing strategy that has been well received by cross-industry executives around the world. Her publication record ranks her among the most published, and most cited, in her field.

Knutson's consistently high student evaluation scores reflect her teaching excellence. In a recent College of Business Annual Report, Knutson was profiled as a top educator in the college, with the article underscoring the connections between her research and teaching. Knutson creatively integrates research knowledge into her classes, providing a service-learning framework for students to think innovatively about what products and services will best serve tomorrow's world. This structure provides students with opportunities to relate their academic studies to real world situations and participate in projects that benefit the community.

In the land-grant tradition of MSU, Knutson uses her research to serve the greater business community and is among the most in-demand seminar speakers for executive management training, nationally and internationally. She spent three weeks teaching Chinese hotel executives and conducted a three-day marketing seminar at the Venetian Resort Hotel in Macau, China. Purdue University routinely invites her to lecture in its Chinese Executive Program

Knutson has more than 200 publications in books, academic journals, business publications and monographs. She is the recipient of the Withrow Teacher-Scholar Award, the Golden Key Teaching Excellence Award and has been named a National Advertising Foundation Scholar.

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Robert Last | Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Department of Plant Biology, College Of Natural Science

Since joining MSU in 2004, Robert Last has been steadily building a world-class program in plant genomics and metabolism. Last is implementing large scale genomic and metabolomic approaches to advance discovery research on plant chloroplasts and secondary metabolism in plant trichomes, which are the hairs on the surface of leaves, often thought of as "chemical factories." His group discovered novel enzymes involved in chioroplast lipid metabolism and in terpene metabolism in trichomes. Before coming to MSU, Last served as the director of Discovery Genomics at Cereon and the program manager at the National Science Foundation.

Last has been active and successful in a number of instructional roles both in and out of the traditional classroom. Most notably, he founded the annual summer research experience "Plant Genomics at MSU," in which approximately 15 undergraduate students participate in coordinated research activities with faculty, postdocs and graduate student mentors in their laboratories. Weekly seminars supplement plant genomics learning for these students, who present summaries of their research to the entire team at the end of the program. Additionally, Last has hosted 29 undergraduate student researchers and assistants in his laboratory during seven years at MSU.

Last has done an exceptional job integrating an interdisciplinary group of scientists, stimulating interaction between members of the MSU community and beyond. Last's research program is supported by two multimillion dollar, multi-investigator grants from NSF. In the NSF-funded Chloroplast 2010 project, MSU faculty from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Department of Plant Biology are working together to focus on the functional analysis of several thousand nuclear genes that encode chloroplast-targeted proteins. Because of such broad and bold approaches to research that Last is known for, one of his supporters calls him "a master at big science."

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Peter Limb | MSU Libraries; Department of History, College of Social Science

Peter Limb epitomizes the figure of the academic librarian-scholar. He has made notable contributions to Africana librarianship and the study of the history of South Africa. Since his arrival at MSU in 2001, Limb has solidified the stature of the Africana Library as an international resource for the studies of Africa. In the words of an esteemed historian of South Africa, Limb "is the leading African bibliographer in the world, a gold mine of information on almost any topic relating to African politics, history and literature."

As adjunct faculty in the Department of History, Limb has taught numerous and well-received undergraduate classes and graduate seminars. He has co-chaired or served on the dissertation committees of Ph.D. students in South African history, mentoring three to completion.

Limb energetically pursues unique materials for MSU Libraries' internationally recognized African Studies Collection. He is an extraordinarily productive collection builder who has immensely improved what was already one of the country’s top Africana collections by emphasizing primary materials, new media, and nontrade materials. Through the contacts he has cultivated with vendors and scholars and through trips to Africa and Europe, many rare or poorly distributed resources, such as African dissertations, have been acquired. Further, the papers of eminent researchers and important organizations have been donated to the MSU libraries as a result of Limb's initiative and collecting drive. He has singlehandedly amassed and provided to students and researchers the nation’s best collection of e-resources about Africa.

Limb has a prolific record of publications, including a major work on the early history of the African National Congress and the highly popular Nelson Mandela: A Biography. With MSU Professor of History Peter Alegi, Peter Limb hosts "Africa Past and Present," a series of freely downloadable podcasts on MATRIX. This cutting-edge cross-disciplinary broadcast reaches a worldwide audience and includes more than 50 episodes, featuring interviews and discussions with key scholars on all areas of African studies.

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William Lynch | Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Natural Science; National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory

Since joining the MSU faculty in 1984, William Lynch has worked on a variety of problems in experimental and theoretical nuclear physics as well as on the construction of major instrumentation required for nuclear physics research. He is and has been a long-time principal investigator at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, the premier university-based nuclear physics facility in the United States. His work and the work of his colleagues have earned the nuclear physics program at MSU the number one ranking in the country.

Lynch has successfully taught a wide variety of classes, from introductory classes for freshmen to advanced graduate classes in nuclear physics. It is particular noteworthy that he loves to teach introductory classes for nonscience majors, welcoming the opportunity to impart the enthusiasm and understanding of science to nonspecialists. Lynch recognizes the importance and value of mentoring both graduate and undergraduate students. He has supervised 15 Ph.D. students, mentored 17 undergraduates in the Research Experience for Undergraduate students program, and worked with more than 30 MSU undergraduate students in their research projects.

Specializing in heavy ion reactions, Lynch's renown for experimental and theoretical research in nuclear physics is evidenced in more than 250 peer-reviewed publications that have earned more than 9,500 citations. His main research accomplishments are the use of intensity interferometry to probe the space-time evolution of heavy ion reactions, the use of isotope ratios as a nuclear thermometer, and his contribution to determining the nuclear equation of state, in particular, its isospin dependence from heavy ion reaction data. In addition to being a prolific scholar, Lynch is famous as a builder of medium- to large-scale detector systems for nuclear reaction studies, which include the MSU Miniball, the HiRA (High Resolution Array), the SAMURAI TPC and the Active Target–Time Projection Chamber.

Lynch has earned several teaching and outreach awards, a Presidential Young Investigator Award and Fellow designation in the American Physical Society.

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Nancy Marino | Department of Romance and Classical Studies, College of Arts and Letters

Since joining the faculty in 1993, Nancy Marino has become nationally and internationally known for her publications and spirited public presentations in the field of Spanish Medieval Studies. Her seven books and many articles have had an influence that extends well beyond the confines of Hispanic Studies and are regularly cited by scholars in other disciplines. Admired as a scholar familiar and at ease with the most recondite materials and texts, Marino has the reputation of writing and speaking eloquently and engagingly about the Middle Ages. Although always serious and meticulous in its scholarly correctness, her work is also marked by a personal touch that captures her readers' interest, brings her subjects to life and demonstrates the profound link between the medieval period that she studies and our contemporary moment. She has become a central figure in medieval studies both in the United States and abroad.

Marino's devotion to the life of the scholar is matched by her passion for teaching. Students use words like "brilliant" and "fabulous" to describe her work in the classroom. Marino spends untold hours meeting with her students, reviewing their work with them and, most importantly, providing the kind of intellectual counsel that has more than once made the crucial difference in a decision that would influence a student’s entire career. For her students, as for her colleagues, she is the model university professor.

Fully committed to the life of the academic community, Marino has given generously of her time for the betterment of MSU. On more than one occasion she has answered the call of her colleagues to serve as associate chair or chair of her department. She has been instrumental in developing a grant program that increases the potential of internal funding for scholarly projects in the humanities.

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Susan Selke | School of Packaging, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Susan Selke is one of the world's leading scholars in the area of sustainability, packaging materials and the end-of-life scenario of packaging. She has provided expert guidance in the area of nanotechnology, packaging and sustainability throughout the United States and abroad. As a result of her sustained efforts, Selke has been recognized and sought as an expert by governmental agencies, trade associations and nonprofit organizations.

Selke's service to MSU and its students is equally impressive. She led the School of Packaging’s efforts to develop the world's first, and only, Ph.D. program in packaging as well as the first online master's degree. Serving as the program's graduate adviser for more than 22 years, Selke is renowned for her open door policy and is regularly sought for guidance of all types. She has served 40 thesis M.S. graduates and 10 Ph.D. graduates as major professor; several of these students are now faculty members in packaging programs in the United States and overseas.

Selke's research has focused on creating alternative packaging materials that have a small environmental footprint; her early work in polymer degradation and packaging waste continues to provide foundational knowledge for those currently working in this area. Her input on the topic of nanotechnology has been sought by the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Outside of the US, she has provided recommendations to the city of Toronto in regard to the long-term implications of various recycling systems. Her research has been funded for more than $2.5 million from a diverse portfolio of funders, including the NSF, the USDA and several companies within the Fortune 500. Over the course of her career, she has authored 10 books and more than 150 publications. Two of her textbooks, "Packaging and the Environment" and "Plastic Packaging," have been translated into Chinese and German and are used in classrooms and laboratories worldwide.

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Lewis Siegelbaum | Department of History, College of Social Science

Lewis Siegelbaum is a prolific, eminent scholar in the field of Russian and Soviet history of the twentieth century for which he has achieved an international reputation and helped enhance the status of MSU’s Department of History throughout the world. Siegelbaum has focused his talent and scholarly work in the research, writing and critical analysis of a variety of topics related to the meaning of work, the worker, workers' culture, material culture, industrialization and the state in Russian/Soviet society. Numerous international grants have supported his research throughout his career.

Throughout his career, Siegelbaum has been a skilled and committed teacher. Students benefit from his inclusion of his most recent research work into his classes and seminars. Recognizing the many elements that comprise a complete education, Siegelbaum has made full use of a variety of media - films, music, visual art, literature - in all of his courses. He co-created the award winning website "Seventeen Moments in Soviet History" for educational purposes. Siegelbaum has successfully mentored numerous graduate students through their programs and into academic jobs, for which these former students remain grateful.

Throughout his career, Siegelbaum has seriously and critically engaged new theoretical and methodological approaches toward history research. Investigating Soviet history during the Cold War was a delicate enterprise; conducting Russian history since the demise of the Soviet Union has required intellectual agility. And Siegelbaum's productivity has been exceptional. Since 1983, he has published four monographs with top-ranked academic presses, edited six volumes with scholarly academic presses, contributed 20 book chapters, and authored 22 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Two of his monographs, Cars for Comrades and Stalinism as a Way of Life were recipients of national awards. Siegelbaum's unusual ability to gain access to archives in the former Soviet Union helps explain the freshness and importance of each of his monographs.