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By Kelsey Kendall

������ hosted the 2023-24 Faculty and Administrator Awards and Service Recognition, an event in which individuals are honored for their research, teaching and commitment to the University.  

“I have witnessed firsthand excellence on this campus both day in and day out,” President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D, said. “And very simply, it is about you. It is about the work that you do every day. You are the reason that we are a Research I institution, and that we have a new School of Data Science in Virginia Beach. You are the reason that we are about to open the new, state-of-the-art Health Sciences Building. You are also the reason we secured a merger with Eastern Virginia Medical School coming to ������. We do this because of all your great work.”

Austin Agho, Ph.D., provost and vice president for academic affairs, applauded faculty on their work – seen in nearly 900 research publications and 167 research projects, receiving $56 million in funding this year.

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award, the Commonwealth’s highest honor for public and private college and university faculty members, went to Justin Haegele, a professor and the director for the Center for Movement, Health and Disability in the Department of Human Movement Sciences. 

Haegele joined the University in 2015 and his research primarily focuses on learning how individuals with disabilities experience physical activity participation, including in school contexts. He is well-known for his work in the adapted physical education field. Throughout his time at ������, Haegele published more than 230 peer-reviewed publications.  

Additionally, he serves as the director of Project CAPER and co-director of the Multi-Institution Mentorship Consortium, both adapted physical activity training collaboratives with other universities across the country funded through the U.S. Department of Education to further training doctoral scholars in the field.

The University’s Eminent Scholars were also recognized. This designation acknowledges faculty members of “unusual merit and service to the University.”

Those named Eminent Scholars were Jennifer Fish, professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies; Khan Iftekharuddin, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Michael Nelson, a professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Computer Sciences and Modeling and Simulation at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center; and Willy Wriggers, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Fish, who joined the University in 2006, was noted for her global leadership as a scholar and activist in human rights and social inequality in the context of societies in transition and women’s labor. She is a key contributor for international organizations such as the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the Migration Policy Institute and the Centre for Global Social Policy.

 Iftekharuddin came to the University in 2011 and is an internationally renowned leader in developing and implementing applications across several fields, including biomedical engineering, artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction, facial recognition, smart and connected cities, cybersecurity and environmental science.

Nelson has a joint appointment in the department of computer science and Modeling and Simulation at VMASC. He is an international leader in digital libraries, web archiving, social media and web science. He joined the University in 2002.

Wriggers has been a professor at ������ since 2015. His work in computational microscopy is internationally recognized and his award-winning program package called Situs is used for modeling and refinement of multi-scale biomolecular structures by researchers worldwide.

The Faculty Research, Scholarship and Creative Achievement Award celebrates tenured faculty members and their high-quality research and scholarship. Charles Hyde, a physics professor, and Ed Neukrug, a counseling professor, were this year’s recipients.

Hyde, an Eminent Scholar for the College of Sciences, co-led a series of experiments at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility which led to the first spatial images of quarks and gluons inside protons and other atomic nuclei.

Neukrug’s 44 years of teaching have been dedicated to enhancing counseling skills and theory as well as assessment. He was named the Batten Endowed Chair of Counseling and helped found the International Institute for the Advancement of Counseling Theory.

Other nominees for the Faculty Research, Scholarship and Creative Achievement award were Tom Allen, Political Science and Geography; Helen Crompton, STEM Education and Professional Students; Jingdong Mao, Chemistry and Biochemistry; and Wie Yusuf, Public Service.

The following awards were also presented:

University Distinguished Teachers: Cathleen Rhodes, Women’s and Gender Studies; Jennifer Sloggie, English

Provost’s Award for Leadership in International Education: Christine Sump, Professional Nursing

Provost’s Adjunct Faculty Teaching Award: Joy Kelly, Educational Foundations and Leadership

Provost’s Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor: Jian Wu, Computer Science

A. Rufus Tonelson ’33 Faculty Award: Wie Yusuf, Public Service

������ Alumni Association New Faculty Award: Angela Wilson, Medical Diagnostic and Translation Sciences

Doctoral Mentoring Award Winners: Vanessa Panfil, Sociology and Criminal Justice; Jori Beck, Teaching and Learning; Charles Sukenik, Physics; Tina Gustin, Advance Practice Nursing

Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award: Andrew Bennett, Management

Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant, Classroom Award: Susana Avalos, Sociology and Criminal Justice

Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant, Laboratory Award: Alissa Ganley, Biological Sciences

Excellence in Advising, Faculty Advisor Role: Suzanne Morrow, Psychology

Excellence in Advising, New Advisor Role: Sierra Garrett, Advising

Excellence in Advising, Advising Administrator Role: Jennifer Hudson, Digital Learning

Excellence in Advising, Advisor Primary Role: Connie Estep, Digital Learning

J. Worth Pickering Administrator of the Year Award: Johnny Young, Student Engagement and Enrollment Services

Association of University Administrator Monarch Professional Award: Liam Costello, Counseling Services

Kate Broderick Award for Excellence in Inclusive Education: Douglas Mills, Biological Sciences

The Faculty Service Recognition Awards honors those with decades of service to the University, including contributions to their fields of research and teaching. The awards were presented to the following:

20 Year Service Award: Moskov Amaryan, Physics; Missy Barber, Graduate School; Alexander Bochdansky, Ocean and Earth Sciences; Michael Carhart, History; Kevin DePew, English; Ashley Doane, Psychology; Kathleen Fowler, English; Mahesh Gopinath, Marketing; Charles Gray, Sociology and Criminal Justice; KaaVonia Hinton, Teaching and Learning; Lisa Horth, Biological Sciences; Anna Jeng, Community and Environmental Health; Lee Hand, Mathematics and Statistics; Soo-Hoon Lee, Management; Li-Shi Luo, Mathematics and Statistics; George McLeod, Information Technology Services; Princes Perry, English; Shana Pribesh, STEM Education and Professional Studies; Keisha Riddick, College of Arts and Letters; Agnieszka Whelan, Art; Vicki Williams, Student Engagement and Enrollment Services; Ruhai Zhou, Mathematics and Statistics

25 Year Service Award: Roya Ardalan, Information Technology and Decision Sciences; Carol Considine, Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency; Stuart Gordon, Digital Learning; Peggy Hester, Human Movement Sciences; Elizabeth Hogue, University Libraries; Vijay Kalburgi, Information Technology and Decision Sciences; Dale Miller, College of Arts and Letters; Jay Morris, Computer Science; David Sorey, Digital Learning; Ruth Triplett, Sociology and Criminal Justice; Bonnie Van Lunen, College of Health Sciences; Renee Weather, Information Technology and Decision Sciences

30 Year Service Award: J. David Branch, Kinesiology and Health Science; Douglas Brown, Digital Learning; Elaine Hardin, Digital Learning; Charles Keating, Engineering Management and Systems Engineering; Brett Newman, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Vera Riddick, Student Financial Aid

35 Year Service Award: John Doukas, Finance; Barbara Hargrave, Biological Sciences; Eileen Hofmann, Ocean and Earth Sciences; John Klinck, Ocean and Earth Sciences; Edward Neukrug, Counseling and Human Services; Thomas Socha, Communication and Theatre Arts; Arthur Taylor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Deborah Waller, Biological Sciences; Kenneth Yung, Finance

40 Year Service Award: John Adam, Mathematics and Statistics; Gordon Melrose, Mathematics and Statistics

45 Year Service Award: Moustafa Moustafa, Engineering Technology

50 Year Service Award: John Tweed, Mathematics and Statistics