Thirteen members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences have been recognized for exceptional achievement in scholarship, teaching, and mentoring for 2021.
The awards, announced annually by the Office of the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences, include the Jerome Goldstein Award for Distinguished Teaching, which is given based on feedback from students. The other awardees were selected by the associate deans of the four arts and sciences divisions.
“These faculty members embody the true meaning of Dartmouth’s scholar-teacher model for delivering a world-class liberal arts education,” says Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Elizabeth Smith. “Their unwavering commitment to both teaching and scholarship creates a brilliant environment to launch a ‘lifetime of learning’ for their students.”
See a list of faculty awards at the professional and graduate schools at the end of this story.
Here are the awardees, along with a brief description from each on their work.
Joshua Bennett
Professor of English and creative writing
Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award for Distinguished Creative or Scholarly Achievement
In my capacity as a literary critic, I write about the relationship between blackness and flowers and birds of the air, wild horses, mountains, moonlight. I am also a poet devoted to the study of what June Jordan once called “the difficult miracle of Black poetry in America.” My courses on adaptation, social poetics, love, and environmentalist thought reflect these inseparable commitments.
Ann Bumpus
Senior lecturer in philosophy and the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric
Dean of the Faculty Teaching Award
My main interests are in ethics and bioethics. I teach courses centering on contemporary moral issues such as physician-assisted suicide and abortion. My current research focuses on dilemmas in reproductive ethics, especially those arising from recent technological advances, such as our ability to genetically modify offspring and to globally outsource pregnancy.
Sienna Craig
Professor of anthropology
John M. Manley Huntington Award for Newly Promoted Faculty
I am a scholar-teacher of cultural and medical anthropology as well as a creative writer. My commitments to Nepali and Tibetan communities circle between Asia and North America and span more than 25 years. My research focuses on Asian medical systems in contemporary context, global health, and dynamics of identity and belonging in contexts of migration.
Feng Fu
Associate professor of mathematics
Dean of the Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentoring and Advising
In my lab, our work aims to facilitate and promote interdisciplinary research that has a foundation in mathematics and also to synergistically connect evolutionary game theory with data science through data-driven mathematical modeling of real-world applications that have a broad and significant impact on our society.
Michael Herron
Remsen 1943 Professor of Quantitative Social Science
Elizabeth Howland Hand-Otis Norton Pierce Award
I study election administration. I have written on the effects of ballot formats on voter choices, and my research shows how statistical analyses can be used to study the ways that election administrative practices, like allowed days of early voting and rules for absentee ballots, affect voter participation. Understanding how elections operate administratively is important for democracy and election integrity, both in the United States and elsewhere.
Michael Hoppa
Assistant professor of biological sciences; assistant professor in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program; assistant professor in the Program in Experimental and Molecular Medicine
John M. Manley Huntington Award for Newly Tenured Faculty
I am interested in what controls the strength of synaptic connections in the brain. Synaptic connections play essential roles in memory formation and sensory processing. Because synapses are smaller than the tip of a human hair, our team at Dartmouth devise genetic strategies to “light up the brain” with fluorescent proteins to optically measure electrical and chemical signals in these tiny but essential compartments of the brain. By using this approach to unravel the molecular basis of synaptic transmission, our team aims to expand our understanding and treatment of disorders in which synaptic transmission is impaired, including autism, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s and ALS.
Katherine Mirica
Associate professor of chemistry
Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award for Distinguished Creative or Scholarly Achievement
My research addresses challenges in health care, environmental stewardship, and microelectronics through innovations in materials chemistry. The major thrust of research in my group is on the design and synthesis of novel conductive porous materials for portable chemical sensing of small molecules of biological and environmental importance. These novel materials, embedded within portable and wearable device architectures, could potentially enable unprecedented levels of sensitivity and selectivity, combined with exceptional chemical stability within device interfaces with relevance to healthcare and environmental monitoring.
Katherine Nautiyal
Assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences
Class of 1962 Faculty Fellowship
I am a behavioral neuroscientist interested in understanding how the brain works to control impulses. My lab studies how manipulations of brain signaling, particularly serotonin, can influence impulse control and reward seeking. This is important for understanding and treating maladaptive impulsivity, as well as learning about how the brain changes during adolescent development to promote maturation of impulse control.
Laura Ogden
Associate professor of anthropology
John M. Manley Huntington Award for Newly Promoted Faculty
I am an anthropologist and my work examines the ways environmental change and conservation efforts impact local communities in the Fuegian Archipelago of Chile. I teach cultural anthropology, writing, and film classes and mentor graduate students in the Ecology, Evolution, Environment, and Society program.
Erich Osterberg
Associate professor of earth sciences
Frank J. Guarini Award for Extraordinary Contribution to Off-Campus Programs
I study climate change and its impacts, particularly sea-level rise, extreme storms, and wildfires. These research interests take me and my students to the glaciers of Alaska, Antarctica, and Greenland to collect ice cores that preserve a climate history spanning thousands of years back through time.
Kimberly Rogers
Associate professor of sociology
John M. Manley Huntington Award for Newly Tenured Faculty
I am a sociological social psychologist who studies how our interactions with others are impacted by, and contribute to, social inequality. My recent work examines how self and identity processes contribute to inequalities in social treatment and emotional experiences, with a particular focus on occupational inequality, discrimination, victimization, and mental health outcomes.
Roger Sloboda
The Ira Allen Eastman Professor of Biological Sciences, emeritus
Robert A. Fish 1918 Memorial Prize
My work in the lab has been completely satisfying, but I think I am most proud of the effect I have had on my students (undergrad and graduate) relative to their interest in biology and the career paths they have chosen. It really thrills me to have a student tell me, around the time of graduation or even years after, how their experience in one of my courses or in the lab has changed their lives (most for the better…!) and/or career choices.
Michele Tine
Associate professor of education
Jerome Goldstein Award for Distinguished Teaching
In my lab, I research how learning varies for children from different backgrounds so I can design efficacious interventions. In my courses, students learn how much we know about child development and how rarely we incorporate that knowledge into educational practice. I aim to empower Dartmouth students to change that.
Professional and Graduate School Awards
In addition to the arts and sciences awards, the following faculty members have received awards this year from the professional and graduate schools.
Geisel School of Medicine: Richard Barth, Leonard Tow Humanism Award to faculty presented by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation; Matthew Duncan, Clinical Science Teaching Award; I. Leah Gitajn, Dartmouth-Mosenthal Surgical Society Fellow; L. Campbell Levy, Joseph F. O’Donnell Faculty Award; Harold Manning, Basic Science Teaching Award; Valerie Valant, Thomas P. Almy Housestaff Teaching Award; Diana Wu, Ann J. Davis Faculty Award.
Geisel School of Medicine Departmental Clerkship Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Geisel Student Learning: Katherine Atkinson, Department of Community and Family Medicine; John Hill Jr., Department of Medicine/Inpatient; Michael Kisicki, Department of Psychiatry; David Levine, Department of Medicine/Advanced Ambulatory Medicine; Jessica McIntyre, Department of Pediatrics/Inpatient; Ashley Miller, Department of Pediatrics/Outpatient; Matthew Molison, Department of Community and Family Medicine; Malcolm Paine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; John Raser, Department of Community and Family Medicine; Miruna Segarceanu, Department of Neurology; Kimberly Sampson, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Themarge Small, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Jennifer Stableford, Department of Surgery.
Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies: Ryan Hickox and Yuliya Komska, Guarini School Faculty Mentoring Award.
Thayer School of Engineering: Vicki May, Thayer Outstanding Service Award for Faculty; Brian Pogue, Thayer Distinguished Research Award for Faculty; Laura Ray, Woodhouse Excellence in Teaching Award.
Tuck School of Business: Jennifer Dannals, Teaching Excellence in the Core Curriculum; Peter Fisher and Ellie Kyung, Teaching Excellence in the Elective Curriculum.