On Friday, October 9th, the Florida High Tech Corridor Council graciously sponsored a Faculty Research Awards Luncheon as part of the weeklong celebration of research and innovation, ResearchOne. Each recipient was awarded a commemorative plaque, monetary prize, and a round of applause from their peers. These individuals are effectively raising the bar internally at USF, as well as, demonstrating to onlookers USF's status as an emerging, world-class, research institution.
2009 USF Outstanding Research Achievement Awards
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John. H. Adams, Ph.D., Professor, Global Health, College of Public Health
Recognized for the publication of “Comparative Genomics of the Neglected Human Parasite Plasmodium vivax Illuminates Malaria Parasite Biology” in the journal Nature and two articles in Public Library of Science Pathogens (PLoS Path).
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Jon Antilla, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, College of Arts & Sciences
Recognized for receiving an NSF CAREER Award* for his study titled Chiral Phosphoric Acid-catalyzed Reaction Methodology and Synthetic Applications.
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Venkat R. Bhethanabotla, Ph.D.
Recognized for the major role he played in the discovery and development of surface acoustic waves for the simultaneous sensing of multiple biomarkers. In 2008 this resulted in 3 patent applications and 7 published in articles in highly competitive journals such as Physical Review E, Physical Review B, and Applied Physics Letters.
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Kathryn M. Borman, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts & Sciences
In 2008 Dr. Borman received 4 research grants totaling $2,802,295 for her large, collaborative, inter-disciplinary, multi-phased and multi-centered projects directed at critically relevant concerns in public education nationally as well as in Florida. Two of these grants are from the National Science Foundation and are focused on studying student participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math curricula.
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Boris Galperin, Ph.D., Associate Professor, College of Marine Science
The discovery of a new turbulence regime called “zonons” which helps to explain the interaction between waves and turbulence in fluids. This discovery was published in Physical Review Letters in 2008 and sheds new light on the study of planetary atmospheres and the Earth’s oceans.
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Peter Harries, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Geology, College of Arts & Sciences
Recognized for his role in the publication of “Phanerozoic Trends in the Global Diversity of Invertebrates,” in the Journal Science. Dr. Harries was a leading member of an international team of scientists who compiled the Paleobiology Database to examine the evolution and variation in biodiversity through geologic time.
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Russell Kirby, Ph.D., Professor & Marrell Endowed Chair, Department of Community & Family Health, College of Public Health
Recognized for receiving the Godfrey P. Oakley, Jr. Award by the national Birth Defects prevention Network for his significant contribution to the field of birth defects and his senior leadership in numerous collaborative research projects undertaken by the network.
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Jarred Ligatti, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, College of Engineering
Recognized for receiving an NSF CAREER Award* for his study titled Foundational Theories and Enforcement Tools for Secure Software Systems.
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Pat Rogers, Ph. D., Litt.D., D. Litt, F.B.A., Eminent Scholar and DeBartolo Professor of Humanities, Department of English, College of Arts & Sciences
Recognized for his election to the Fellowship of the British Academy for attaining “high international standing in any of the branches of study which it is the object of the Academy to promote.” The British Academy focuses on the Humanities and Social Sciences and is the equivalent of the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S. Dr. Rogers is a leading international scholar in the field of 18th Century British Literature and Culture and is one of only 10 scholars to be selected as Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy in 2008.
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Jason Rohr, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, College of Arts & Sciences
Recognized as the lead author on a paper entitled “Agrochemicals Increase Trematode Infections in a Declining Amphibian Species” in the journal Nature, and the paper entitled “Evaluating the Links between Climate, Disease Spread, and Amphibian Declines” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2008 Dr. Rohr also received over $1M in research funding from the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture.
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Hamisu Salihu, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, College of Public Health
Recognized for the publication of a novel theory called “event memory hypothesis” which suggests a possible molecular memory-recall programming pattern in human gestation using epidemiologic/molecular evidence. In 2008 this hypothesis was published in the journals Medical Hypotheses and Obstetrics & Gynecology, and may help to understand and prevent the causes of fetal death.
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Noël Schiller, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Art and Art History, College of The Arts
Recognized for receiving a Getty Postdoctoral Residential Fellowship** to work on her book, Engaging Laughter: Representing Perception, Sensation, and the Passions in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art. This 9-month residential program allows scholars to devote themselves to full-time research and to participate in regular formal and informal gatherings among the community of scholars. Dr. Schiller was one of only 15 scholars to be selected for this fellowship that supports “interpretive research projects that promise to make a substantial and original contribution to the understanding of art and its history.”
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Kristina Schmidt, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, College of Arts & Sciences
Recognized for being a junior faculty member who has been awarded a National Institutes of Health R01 Grant totaling $1,320,000. This project, titled Suppression of Translocations by RecQ-like DNA helicases, will focus on genomic instability using a yeast model system.
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Kevin Yelvington, D.Phil., Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts & Sciences
Recognized for receiving a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation,** to work on his book, Melville J. Herskovits and the making of Afro-American Anthropology. One of 190 fellows selected from more than 2,600 applicants, he is among artists, scientists and scholars chosen for their stellar achievement and exceptional promise for continued accomplishment.
*CAREER Awards are the National Science Foundation’s “most prestigious awards in support of the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization.” The CAREER award are recommended by a panel of topnotch scholars who are charged with selecting the most promising research programs from among junior faculty applicants at universities all across the country. The CAREER award is impressive in that it is a 5-year research grant, but it is even more than that. It is the NSF’s recognition of scientific talent and strong potential for a lifelong career at the forefront of one’s discipline.
**These awards are recognized as a benchmark of distinction by the National Research Council, the Top American Research Universities (TARU), and the American Association of Universities.
