Feb. 7 ceremony to honor Sarah Goddard Power Award winners

Dr. Karin Muraszko and Martha Pollack have been chosen to receive the 2007 Sarah Goddard Power Awards by the Academic Women's Caucus selection committee.

Muraszko (Photo by Karen Kuehn)

The two will be honored at the 23rd annual awards ceremony at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 7 in the Hussey Room of the Michigan League.

Muraszko is chair and professor of neurosurgery; professor of surgery, Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases; and professor of plastic surgery, Medical School. Pollack is professor and chair of computer science and engineering and associate chair of electrical engineering and computer science in the College of Engineering (CoE).

The first woman to chair a department of neurosurgery in the United States, Muraszko is recognized as an international and national neurologic expert and has received numerous awards for clinical and community service, including the U-M Community Service Award.

Since coming to the University in 2000, Pollack has worked to increase the number of women as tenure-track faculty in her division and the number of women as faculty in CoE and the sciences in general. In her field of artificial intelligence, colleagues say she is known worldwide for her groundbreaking work in automated planning and natural language processing.

Pollack (File Photo/U-M Photo Services)

Muraszko and Pollack's nomination materials will become part of the collections in the Bentley Historical Library.

Doors to the awards ceremony open to the public at 4 p.m., with refreshments served in the concourse outside the Hussey Room. A reception will follow the presentation.

The award was established by the Academic Women's caucus in memory of Sarah Goddard Power, a former regent who was a strong advocate for women within the University. Its goal is to honor faculty members (including instructors, lecturers, primary researchers, librarians and curators) and senior administrative staff who have made significant contributions to the betterment of women at U-M and globally through distinguished leadership, scholarship or other activities related to their professions.