2011 Award Recipients
Recipients of the 2011 Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Creative Activity
JULIE A. CASWELL
Professor and Chair of Resource Economics
Among those who watch over the safety of the international food supply, Professor Julie Caswell is known for her path-breaking work on the economics of food quality. She is extolled for her research and lauded for her ability to apply her discoveries to practical work with government and industry. Her vast influence extends to food labels, certification systems for food safety, biotechnology, organic production, international trade, and myriad other vital areas.
Professor Caswell’s impact has been felt well beyond campus during her 27-year tenure at UMass Amherst. She has spearheaded national research initiatives and been in high demand as a speaker at conferences all across the United States and in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. She has edited five books, including two that have become foundations of her field, and written more than 50 refereed journal articles and 30 book chapters.
Education: BS, Michigan State University, 1976; MS, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1980; PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1984.
Significant Honors: Distinguished Member Award, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, 1997; Distinguished Public Policy Lecturer, University of Guelph, 2005; Fulbright Distinguished Lectureship, 2009.
LORI A. CLARKE
Professor of Computer Science
Professor Lori Clarke has broken new ground in the field of software engineering while working to ensure that more women and underrepresented groups can succeed in computing careers. Her research has focused on the development and evaluation of approaches for improving the quality of software systems. Recently, her pioneering work on improving medical safety has been applied to digital government projects and scientific workflows.
In more than three decades at UMass Amherst, Professor Clarke’s research accomplishments have been extraordinary. She has published steadily in leading software journals. As principal or co-principal investigator, she has secured many millions of dollars in research support, including major grants from the National Science Foundation and from the Department of Defense. As a speaker, she is in high demand, having lectured worldwide throughout her career. In the last five years, she spoke at events in the United States, France, Germany, England, Australia, India, China, and Ghana.
Education: BA, University of Rochester, 1969; PhD, University of Colorado, 1976.
Significant Honors: Association of Computing Machinery Fellow, 1998; Best Paper Award, Model-Based Trustworthy Health Systems (MOTHIS), 2007; Keynote Speaker, International Conference on Software Engineering, Leipzig, Germany, 2008.
PETER GIZZI
Professor of English
Professor Peter Gizzi is highly acclaimed both as a poet and as a scholar. His fifth collection of poetry, Threshold Songs, will be published this fall by Wesleyan University Press. His four previous collections have been widely praised. The world-renowned poet Adrienne Rich said about The Outernationale (2007), “His phrasing can wrench the heart.” Other reviewers called the work “achingly beautiful,” “magnificent,” and a “poetic achievement of the highest quality.” Some Values of Landscape and Weather (2003), Artificial Heart (1998), and Periplum (1992) received similar accolades. Professor Gizzi’s poems are widely anthologized and translated. He was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for poetry in 2005.
Professor Gizzi’s work as an editor includes The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer (1998) and the Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer (2008), which brought the mid-century poet to the attention of a new generation of readers. He served as poetry editor for The Nation from 2007 until 2011 and has held residencies at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and abroad.
Education: BA, New York University, 1986; MFA, Brown University, 1991; PhD, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1997.
Significant Honors: The Academy of Poets: Lavan Younger Poet Award, 1994; Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative North American Poetry, 2005, 1994, and 1993.
JOSEPH I. GOLDSTEIN
Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Professor Joseph Goldstein is in an elite group of extremely distinguished internationally recognized electron microscopists. His research interests have included the use of electron probe microanalyzers, scanning electron microscopes, and analytical electron microscopes. He has put his knowledge to work on problems of materials science and engineering and has continued to advance his life-long passion for probing the mysteries of meteorites.
Professor Goldstein has adeptly combined administration and scholarship. While dean of engineering from 1993 to 2004, he led many successful initiatives to strengthen research and education in the College of Engineering. He has written or edited 11 books, including several textbooks that are the recognized standards in their field, and published more than 200 articles in refereed journals. For his outstanding contributions to the understanding of extraterrestrial materials, an asteroid was named in his honor: “Joegoldstein” is located in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Education: BS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1960; SM, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1962; ScD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1964.
Significant Honors: Fellow, American Society for Metals, 1986; Henry Clifton Sorby Award of the International Metallographic Society, 1999; Leonard Medal of the Meteoritical Society, 2005.
MARLA R. MILLER
Professor of History
As director of the thriving UMass Amherst Public History Program, Marla Miller prepares graduate students to preserve and communicate history to the public. In her scholarly work as well, she has successfully made historical scholarship come alive for a non-academic audience.
Beginning with recognition from three major prize committees for her doctoral dissertation, Professor Miller has been continually lauded for her ability to combine scholarship with elegant writing. Her book, The Needle’s Eye: Women and Work in the Age of Revolution, was praised for rich biographical and economic portraits that add to the understanding of women’s labor. Her most recent book, Betsy Ross and the Making of America, was the first scholarly examination of Ross and received widespread stellar reviews. This book led to an exhibit on Ross, co-curated by Miller, at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware.
Miller edited Cultivating a Past: Essays on the History of Hadley, Massachusetts. She has two more books in progress: Knowing Your Place: Women, Work and Class on a Massachusetts Landscape and a biography of Massachusetts gown maker Rebecca Dickinson. In 2001, she received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for research of value to humanities scholars and general audiences.
Education: BA, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1988; MA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1991; PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1997.
Significant Honors: Ruth Miller Fellowship, 2004; Winterthur Research Fellowship, 2008; Patrick Henry Fellowship, C.V. Starr Center for the American Experience, 2009.
THOMAS P. RUSSELL
Distinguished Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering
Professor Thomas Russell is a world leader in polymer science whose work has solidified the reputation of UMass Amherst as a premier institution for polymer science and engineering. He has been an extraordinarily productive researcher, while simultaneously bringing several large multi-investigator research centers with great intellectual and financial benefits to campus.
Recently, Professor Russell has assumed greater national and international service roles in several fields, including contributing to a Japanese government initiative to encourage collaboration in materials research. In just the last five years, Professor Russell has given more than 50 presentations at scientific gatherings around the globe, from meetings of the National Academies in the United States to international polymer science symposia in Europe and Asia. His career publications total well over 500 in such leading journals as Nature and Science. Professor Russell is an editor of Macromolecules, the premier journal of the polymer discipline and he holds or has in process more than a dozen patents for his discoveries.
Education: BS, Boston State College, 1976; MS, UMass Amherst, 1976; PhD, UMass Amherst, 1979.
Significant Honors: Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2002; American Physical Society, Polymer Physics Prize, 2004; Dutch Polymer Award, 2004; Fellow, Neutron Scattering Society of America, 2006.