Peter X. Ma, assistant professor of dentistry, Department of Biologic and Materials Sciences; and of macromolecular science and engineering and of biomedical engineering, has received a DuPont Young Professor Award, designed to help young faculty members launch their research careers. Ma is the first recipient in the award’s history to be a dental school faculty member.
Ma was one of 14 faculty members in the nation chosen by the DuPont Fellows Forum to receive the award, which includes $25,000 that can be considered for renewal for up to three years. The award also may be used to obtain matching funds through the National Science Foundation’s Young Investigator Award program.
Ma develops dental restorative materials that replace the structure and function of damaged or diseased tissues or organs and scaffolding (matrix materials) for cells to grow on and develop into new tissues.
Giants in Science Award goes to Evans
Billy Joe Evans, professor of chemistry, was one of five individuals recently honored as “Giants in Science” during the Ninth Annual National Conference of the Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Mathematics, Science and Engineering Network.
Evans was honored for his impact on students and work as a mentor, teacher and researcher as well as an advocate of quality education for minorities. He directs the University’s Scholarly Research for Urban/Minority High School Students Program. Evans’ research interests include the synthesis and structure/property relations in magnetic and electronic materials.
The QEM Network is a coalition of minority and non-minority educational institutions, school districts, organizations and professional societies.
Bornstein receives Rosenthal Award
George Bornstein, the C. A. Patrides Professor of Literature, received this year’s M. L. Rosenthal Award from the Yeats Society on March 2. The Rosenthal Award is given once a year for lifetime contributions to Yeats studies. In recognizing Bornstein, the Society stated that he “established his reputation as a leading scholar of the history and influence of poetry from the Romantics to the present with his first book, Yeats and Shelley, which was followed by fifteen other books and editions.”
Danziger awarded Flynn Prize
Sheldon H. Danziger, the Henry J. Meyer Collegiate Professor of Social Work and Public Policy, and director of the Social Work Development Center on Poverty, Risk and Mental Health and of the Research and Training Program on Poverty, the Underclass and Public Policy, has been awarded the inaugural Flynn Millennium Prize by the University of Southern California School of Social Work for his “demonstrated exceptional ability to apply social work concepts to other fields and to conduct research in new contexts for the purpose of advancing social well-being.”
The prize recognizes individuals whose work significantly advances the understanding of populations most affected by severe and persistent social problems; whose research is characterized by rigor, depth and creative imagination; and whose projects draw upon interdisciplinary relationships.
According to the award announcement, “The social science and social impacts of [Danziger’s] poverty research and his contributions to building a new generation of researchers through the multidisciplinary research and training program he established at the U-M are highly valued. He has brought Michigan to prominence as a leading center of research on one of the most critical social problems of the times.”