Faculty Awards and Accomplishments

2012-2013

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Three NYU faculty members were elected  as members of the National Academy of Sciences.   Established in 1863, the NAS is charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology.  Scientists are elected by their peers to membership in the NAS for outstanding contributions to research. This year's elected members from NYU include:

• DAVID HEEGER, professor of psychology and neural science, Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, NYU
  
• JOSEPH LEDOUX, Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science, Center for Neural Science, NYU
  
• RUTH NUSSENZWEIG, C.V. Starr Professor of Medical and Molecular Parasitology and Pathology, department of pathology, Langone Medical Center, NYU School of Medicine
  

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Three NYU faculty members were elected into the 2013 Class of Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.   Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the sciences, the humanities and the arts, business, and public affairs, and the nonprofit sector.  The new class of 186 Fellows and 12 Foreign Honorary Members comes from 26 states and 7 countries and represents nearly 100 institutions. This year's elected members from NYU include:

• MARTIN JACK BLASER, Muriel G. and George W. Singer Professor of Translational Medicine; Professor of Microbiology; Director Human Microbiome Program, NYU School of Medicine
• DAVID CHALMERS, Professor of Philosophy, NYU Faculty of Arts and Science; Director, Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness, NYU; Distinguished Professor of Philosohpy, Director, Center for Consciousness, Australian National University
• ALASTAIR SMITH, Professor of Politics, NYU Faculty of Arts and Science

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LALA STRAUSSNER, professor of Social Work at NYU's Silver School of Social Work, was the recipient of the FULBRIGHT DISTINGUISHED CHAIR IN SOCIAL STUDIES at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.  The Fulbright Distinguished Chairs Program comprises approximately forty distinguished lecturing, distinguished research and distinguished lecturing/research awards ranging from three to 12 months. Awards in the Fulbright Distinguished Chairs Program are viewed as among the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholar Program.

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DIANA TAYLOR, professor of Spanish and Portugese at NYU's Faculty of Arts and Science, was one of seven recipients of the American Council of Learned Societies Digital Innovation Fellowships.  Fellowship recipients will spend a year dedicated to a major scholarly project intended to advance digital humanstic scholarship in powerful new directions.  Professor Taylor's project is titled, "The Politics of Passion: A Digital, Bil-Lingual Scholarly Book Focusing on the Art and Activist of Jesusa Rodriguez."

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School of Law Professor JEANNE FROMER was elected to the AMERICAN LAW INSTITUTE as one of 68 new members named in 2013.  The American Law Institute - a leading independent organization dedicated to producing scholarship that clarifies and modernizes the law - has more than 4,300 top attorneys, judges, and law professors in its membership.

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ROBERT QUINN, executive director of NYU's Scholars at Risk Network (SAR), was the recipient of the 2013 LISL AND LEO EITINGER PRIZE, awarded by the University of Oslo in recognition of personal effort and active involvement in human rights.  A network of 280 universities and colleges in 34 countries, SAR: provides sanctuary to scholars who are threatened because of their words, ideas, and place in society; advocates on behalf of imprisioned scholars; and undertakes research promoting understanding of academic freedom.

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Six NYU scholars were placed on FOREIGN POLICY magazine's list of the "TOP 100 GLOBAL THINKERS 2012."  They include:

• DANAH BOYD, Research Assistant Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
  
• CHEN GUANGCHENG, Fellow, Asian Program, School of Law
• JONATHAN HAIDT, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, Stern School of Business
• BETH NOVECK, Visiting Professor, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
• PAUL ROMER, Professor of Economics; Director, Urbanization Project, Stern School of Business
• NOURIEL ROUBINI, Professor of Economics and International Business, Stern School of Business

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Four faculty members from the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at the Tisch School received nominations for the 2013 GRAMMY AWARDS:

• JIM ANDERSON, professor - nominated for Best Surround Album, Modern Cool
• HOLLY GEORGE-WARREN, instructor - nominated for Best Album Notes, The Pearl Sessions
• ERROL KOLOSINE, assistant arts professor of recorded music - represents a band nominated for Best Dance/Electronica Album, Don't Think, The Chemical Brothers
• AHMIR "?UESTLOVE" THOMPSON, instructor - nominated for BEST RAP ALBUM, Undun, The Roots

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IRSHAD MANJI, director of the Moral Courage Project housed at the Wagner School's Research Center for Leadership in Action, received the ETHICAL HUMANIST AWARD, the New York Society for Ethical Culture's highest honor. The award, established in 1970 to honor individuals who have acted with exceptional moral courage, was presented only 16 times since its founding.  The Moral Courage Project works to enable people to become empowered global citizens by speaking up in the face of intimidation.

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BRYAN STEVENSON, professor of clinical law at the School of Law, was named winner of Smithsonian Magazine's AMERICAN INGENUITY AWARD in the category of social progress.  As one of nine winners of the award, which celebrates "the most innovative individuals working today," Professor Stevenson was honored for his influential advocacy this past year on behalf of incarcerated minors, which led to a Supreme Court Ruling effectively barring mandatory life sentences without parole for minors.

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ANDREW MAJDA, Samuel F.B. Morse Professor of Arts and Sciences at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, was named winner of the 2013 NORBERT WIENER PRIZE IN APPLIED MATHEMATICS, awarded every three years by the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.  Professor Majda was recognized for, "his groundbreaking work in theoretical fluid mechanics and its applications to problems in atmospheric sicence and oceanography."

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TOM BISHOP, the Florence Lacaze Gould Professor of French Literature, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, and Director of the Center for French Civalization and Culture, was named a COMMANDEUR in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.  Commandeur is the highest rank bestowed by the Ordre, in recognition of significant contribution to the enrichment of French Cultural inheritance.

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The AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS) has awarded four NYU professors the distiction of AAAS FELLOW:

• JANE CARLTON,Professor of Biology in the Department of Biology and Adjunct Professor, School of Medicine
  
• NICHOLAS GEACINTOV, Professor of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts and Science
  
• LAURENCE MALONEY, Professor of Psychology and Neural Sciecne, Faculty of Arts and Science
  
• XIAO-JING WANG, Professor of Neural Science and Provost, NYU Shanghai
  

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Six NYU faculty members were awarded the 2013 NYU Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Faculty Award.  The award, sponsored by the NYU Office of the Provost and Division of Student Affairs, recognizes outstanding faculty who exemplify the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through their teaching excellence, leadership, commitment to social justice and community building.  The 2013 awardees are:

• ALINA DAS, Assistant Professor, School of Law
• ROBERT CHAZAN, Professor, Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Faculty of Arts and Science
• DOLLY CHUG, Assistant Professor, Leonard N. Stern School of Business
• DAVID ELCOTT, Clinical Professor, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
• CATHY GUERRIERO, Adjunct Associate Professor, Administration, Leadership and Technology, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
• JULIANNE LUTZ WARREN, Master Teacher, Liberal Studies, Faculty of Arts and Science

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ANNA DEAVERE SMITH, professor of performance Studies at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, was awarded the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize -- one of the largest prizes awarded in the arts.  The prize, now in its 19th year, was established by Lillian Gish's will and is awarded "to a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of lide."  Smith, a familiar figure on stage, television and film, was chosen from a list of 30 finalists.

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President Barack Obama named JAN VILICEK, MD, PhD, professor of microbiology at NYU Langone, a recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation.  This medal is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. Government upon scientists, engineers and inventors -- recognizing those who have made lasting contributions to America's competitiveness and quality of life and helped strengthen the Nation's technological workforce.  Vilcek, one of 11 medal recipients, is co-inventor of the rheumatoid arthritis drug Remicade®.  The medal recognizes his pioneering work on interferons and monoclonal antibodies.

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Over 160 faculty members from each of New York University's schools and institutes were the recipients of major awards, prizes and special honors during the 2012 calendar year for their scholarly and creative contributions.  These faculty were honored in a Faculty Honors Reception on December 13, 2012 co-hosted by President John Sexton and Provost David McLaughlin. 

• A booklet listing honored faculty members may be viewed here.
  

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Two NYU affiliates were awarded the New York Academy of Sciences' 2012 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.   The Awards acknowledge and celebrate the excellence of the most noteworthy young scientists and engineers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.  They recognize highly innovative, impactful and interdisciplinary accomplishments in the life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics and engineering. This year's awardeeds include:

• Faculty Winner: ASSAF NAOR, Professor, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
• Postdoctoral Winner: ROBERT JOHNSTON, Associate Research Scientist, Biology - Faculty of Arts and Science

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ANNA DEAVERE SMITH, University Professor and professor of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts with an affiliation at the School of Law, was awarded Stanford University School of Medicine's Dean’s Medal. The school’s highest honor, the medal honors individuals who have made contributions that have significantly advanced the mission of the school. Smith is the creator of the acclaimed one-woman show Let Me Down Easy, in which she adopts the personae of a diverse group of individuals to portray human frailty amid a complex medical system.

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DAVID AMODIO, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and the Center for Neural Science, was named 2012 recipient of the F. J. McGuigan Early Career Investigator Research Prize on Understanding the Human Mind. The prize, sponsored by the American Psychological Foundation, is given biennially to an early-career psychologist engaged in research that seeks to understand the human mind from a primarily psychophysiological perspective. Professor Amodio’s research examines the psychological mechanisms of social behavior and self-regulation.

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RONALD DWORKIN, the Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law, has won a 2012 Balzan Prize for his "fundamental contributions to jurisprudence, characterized by outstanding gifts of sharpness, originality, and clarity of thought in a constant and fruitful interaction with ethical and political theories and with legal practices."  The prize, which comes with an award of 750,000 Swiss francs (approximately $800,000), is awarded in a number of subjects each year by a foundaiton based in Milan and Zurich.  Professor Dworkin is one of only four recipients this year, and the only U.S. recipient.

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RICHARD TSIEN, director of the NYU Neuroscience Institute and chair of the Department of Physiology and Neuroscience, was awarded the 2012 Julius Axelrod Prize, established by the Society for Neuroscience to honor scientists with distinguished achievements in the field of neuropharmacology (or a related area) and to celebrate exemplary efforts in mentoring young scientists.  Dr. Tsien's work adds to our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of neurotransmission and intracellular signaling and explores the importance of these pathways in neurological disease.  Beyond his work in the lab, Dr. Tsien enjoys his role as a mentor of both students and young faculty.

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DANNY STRONG, adjunct faculty in the Undergraduate Film & Television Division of the Kanbar Institute at the Tisch School of the Arts, won a 2012 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or Movie for the HBO film Game Change. The film won a total of five Emmys in all, including Outstanding Miniseries or Movie. In addition, 17 TSOA alumni (noted in the Alumni Honors section below) won 2012 Emmys, and 63 members of the TSOA community received nominations.

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Six faculty members were selected as 2012 Guggenheim Fellows.  Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.

• SHIMON DOTAN, Adjunct Associate Professor, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, Faculty of Arts and Science
• ALICE ELLIOTT, associate teacher in the Kanbar Institute of Film, Television and Media, TSOA
• BRUCE GRANT, Professor of Anthropology, FAS
• STEPHEN HALL, Adjunct Professor, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, FAS
• JAMES JACOBS, Warren E. Burger Professor of Law, School of Law
• RICHARD SIEBURTH, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, FAS

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MARY MCKAY, the McSilver Professor of Poverty Studies and director of the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Reearch at the Silver School of Social Work, was selected as a fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.  Professor McKay, an internationally renowned specialist on families in poverty and positive youth development, joined SSSW in 2011.

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MARY CARRUTHERS, professor emerita of English, was named a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. Only 15 scholars per year are elected as Corresponding Fellows, scholars outside the UK who have “attained high international standing” in the humanities or social sciences. Professor Carruthers’s areas of research are medieval literature and rhetoric, memory and mnemonic technique, and the history of spirituality.

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CLIFFORD JOLLY, professor emeritus of Anthropology, received the 2012 Charles R. Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes and honors distinguished senior members of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. Professor Jolly, who has been at NYU for more than four decades, has conducted pioneering research on the evolution and genetics of baboons.

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TED RAPPAPORT, the David Lee/Ernst Weber Professor of Electrical Engineering at NYU-Poly, was selected as the 2012 recipient of the William E. Sayle Award for Achievement in Education by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Education Society. The award is presented annually to an IEEE Education Society member who has made significant contributions in engineering education. Professor Rappaport is the founding director of NYU WIRELESS, a new research center that combines engineering, computer science, and medical applications, and also holds faculty positions in the Department of Computer Science at the Courant Institute and in the Department of Radiology in the School of Medicine.

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NYU-Poly’s ROBERT UBELL received the A. Frank Mayadas Leadership Award in Online Education from The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), the country’s most prominent association of academic institutions championing online higher education. Ubell is vice president of Enterprise Learning at NYU-Poly, which in November won Sloan-C’s award for the nation’s “Outstanding Online Program” for its e-learning cyber security master’s degree, and also leads NYU-Poly’s e-learning unit, delivering nearly 20 online graduate science and technology programs worldwide.

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WILLIAM EASTERLY, professor in the Department of Economics and co-director of the Development Research Institute, won the 2013 Adam Smith Award for his research into the role of government and foreign aid in addressing poverty and underdevelopment. The highest honor bestowed by the Association of Private Enterprise Education, the award recognizes an individual who has made a lasting contribution to the perpetuation of the ideals of a free market economy.

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The New York Academy of Sciences  selected two NYU researchers for its 2012 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists: ASSAF NAOR, professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and ROBERT JOHNSTON, postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Biology Professor Claude Desplan. The awards recognize innovative, impactful, and interdisciplinary accomplishments of researchers under the age of 42. The four faculty winners, who receive $25,000, and the five postdoctoral winners, who receive $15,000, were selected from more than 170 nominations.

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ELLIOT WOLFSON, the Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, won an American Academy of Religion Award for his 2011 work, A Dream Interpreted Within a Dream: Oneiropoiesis and the Prism of Imagination.  In his book, recognized in the category of “Constructive-Reflective Studies,” Professor Wolfson proposes a linguistic archaeology to elucidate the nature of the dream in an array of biblical, rabbinic, philosophical, and kabbalistic texts.

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CYBELE RAVER, Vice Provost of Academic, Faculty, and Research Affairs and professor of applied psychology at Steinhardt, received the American Psychological Association’s 2012 Distinguished Contributions of Applications to Education and Training Award. The award recognizes Professor Raver’s contributions in the application of psychological principles to the study of developmental science.

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TESSA WEST, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, was named the recipient of the 2012 Theoretical Innovation Prize, given by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. She shares the prize with the University of Connecticut’s David Kenny for an article they co-authored in 2011, “The Truth and Bias Model of Judgment.”

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MARY LEOU, Clinical Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning and director of Steinhardt’s Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education, was one of 24 winners of the Audubon Society’s “Women Greening the City” award. Professor Leou, recognized for “tirelessly transforming and greening the physical landscape of New York City’s urban habitat,” oversees initiatives in environmental education that serve New York City public school children.

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NIYATI PAREKH, an assistant professor at Steinhardt’s Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, was named a Cancer Society Research Scholar by the American Cancer Society.  The lifetime designation recognizes the contributions that Parekh, a nutritional epidemiologist, has made on behalf of cancer research.