Thorp

The Emeriti Association recently announced its selection of native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp to receive the 2015 Distinguished Emeritus Award.

Lyn Lofland, president of the association’s Executive Committee, said Thorp “matched perfectly” with the award’s requisites: “outstanding scholarly work or service (e.g., service in professional, university, Academic Senate, emeriti/ae, departmental, editorial posts or committees) performed since retirement.”

Thorp joined the entomology faculty in 1964 and took emeritus status in 1994. A fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, he is a world-renowned authority on. Pollination ecology, and systematics of honey and bumble bees.

Lofland cited Thorp’s continuing professional contributions since retirement: publishing scientific papers and books, teaching and guiding graduate students, providing expert taxonomic services, and training numerous field assistants.

Read more.

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The Emeriti Association has bestowed four Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorships.

The professorships are given at each UC campus to support emeriti in their continued research, teaching and-or public service. Edward A. Dickson, a member of the Board of Regents from 1913 to 1946 — the longest tenure of any regent — provided the endowment that funds the professorships.

The UC Davis recipients for 2014-15, followed by their projects and grant awards:

• Dan Anderson, wildlife, fish and conservation biology — “Age and Cranial-Ossification/Bone Density Characteristics in Brown  Pelicans: Potential Applications for Demographic and Nutritional Analyses” ($4,000)
• Hugh Dingle, entomology — “Monarchs in the Pacific: Is Contemporary Evolution Occurring on an Isolated Island?” ($4,000)
• Martha Macri, Native American studies — “Cultural Evolution of Human Communication Systems: Investigating Linguistic Diversity and Social Change with Mayan Hieroglyphic Writing” ($12,500)
• Peter Schiffman, Earth and planetary sciences — “Support for Joint Undergraduate/Graduate Studies on Assessing the Geothermal Potential of the Modoc Plateau in Northeast California” ($5,000)

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Professor Dan Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies, has been appointed the 2015 chair of the Transportation Research Board’s Executive Committee

The board, which provides independent scientific advice to the nation on transportation issues, is a major division of the National Research Council, the private, nonprofit institution that serves as the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering and as an independent adviser to the U.S. government.

One of the world¹s most renowned transportation experts, Sperling founded the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis in 1991 and has led it to international prominence — building strong partnerships with industry, government and the environmental community, and connecting research with public policy and outreach.

Read the complete news release.

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The Association for Women in Slavic Studies recently honored Jenny Kaminer, assistant professor of Russian in the Department of German and Russian, for her first book, Women With a Thirst For Destruction: The Bad Mother in Russian Culture, published last February

It earned the association’s 2014 Heldt Prize as best book in Slavic/Eastern European/Eurasian women’s studies.

The association’s website describes the book as “rich, powerful and thought-provoking,” and elaborates as follows:

“Jenny Kaminer asks whether the bad mother reasserts the centrality of the mother archetype or if it reveals the imperfection of this figure which can no longer sustain the same cultural power as it had in early times.

“Well worth reading, the perceptive gender analysis of contextualized literary works and its reflective quality build a captivating argument and present a major contribution to Russian gender and cultural studies.”

Kaminer joined the UC Davis faculty in 2009; besides her appointment in the Department of Russian and German, she is affiliated with the Jewish Studies Program and the Humanities Program, teaching in both.

She holds a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literature from Northwestern University, and taught at Oberlin College and the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom) before coming to UC Davis.

At this time, her research interests include gender and Russian culture, post-Soviet culture, and Russian theater and drama, particularly of the post-Soviet period. She has published several articles on Russian literature and culture.

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Two accounting associations recently presented their  2015 Lifetime Contribution Award to Professor Michael Maher of the Graduate School of Management.

The award is from the American Institute of CPAs (certified public accountants) and the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association.

They cited Maher for his numerous years of research and teaching of management accounting issues.

“Professor Maher’s research in areas such as antitrust issues related to the airline industry, the cost-effectiveness of online education, and corporate crime and misconduct have contributed to the growth of knowledge in management accounting,” said Valerie Rainey, chair of the American Institute of CPAs’ Business and Industry Executive Committee.

Maher teaches courses in managerial accounting, and using performance measurements and rewards to motivate people. He has been named professor of the year in second-year classes.

He previously received the American Institute of CPAs’ Notable Contribution to the Literature Gold Medal and the American Accounting Association’s Competitive Manuscript award. 

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Carmia Feldman, assistant director of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, has been appointed to the board of directors of the American Public Gardens Association. She is a director-at-large and serves on the Program Selection Committee, helping to solicit and select presentations for the association’s annual meetings.

Feldman said she is honored to be able to help promote the APGA’s mission, which is to advance public gardens as a force for positive change in their communities, through national leadership, advocacy and innovation.

Two years ago the California Institute for Biodiversity named Feldman its 2013 Nonprofit Leader of the Year.

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Dateline UC Davis welcomes news of faculty and staff awards, for publication in Laurels. Send information to dateline@ucdavis.edu.

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