Florida Blue Key Honors UF's Best & Brightest
This article was originally published in the December 2004 / January 2005 issue of CLASnotes
During the UF homecoming festivities in November, three CLAS professors were honored for their outstanding service and dedication to the university with a 2004 Distinguished Faculty Award from Florida Blue Key. Psychology Professor Brian Iwata, History Professor and Director of the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research Angel Kwolek-Folland and Chemistry Professor Martin Vala were three of four faculty members chosen from across campus to receive the honor.
“I was very impressed by not only the time each nominee has dedicated to his or her field of study and teaching efforts, but also to community service,” says Matthew Wein, an economics and geography senior who chaired the five-member awards committee comprised of faculty and undergraduate and graduate students from across campus. “I was sorry we could only recognize four of them.”
The winners were recognized at the 75th Annual Homecoming Banquet, a highlight of which was an appearance by US Senator Bob Graham. They also were honored at a special event, Education Celebration, designed specifically to thank distinguished faculty for their hard work throughout the year. Iwata, Kwolek-Folland and Vala also had the opportunity to ride in the homecoming parade.
Brian Iwata
Iwata has been a professor at UF for the past 18 years. He received a PhD in psychology from Florida State University in 1974, and was an associate professor in pediatrics and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University before coming to UF in 1986. He is a licensed psychologist and certified behavior analyst and is a leading authority on experimental approaches to behavioral assessment. During the past decade, more than 80 undergraduate students from Iwata’s laboratories have gained admission into top graduate programs, and half of the recipients of the B.F. Skinner Award from the American Psychological Association have been his former PhD students.
“Given the very large size of our faculty and the excellence evident in their work, I was very honored to receive this award and realize that there are many who are equally deserving,” Iwata says. The thing he likes best about the university, he says, is its interdisciplinary collaborative spirit among faculty across departments.
Angel Kwolek-Folland
Kwolek-Folland came to UF in 2000 to assume the directorship of the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research. She served as a professor of history and women’s studies at the University of Kansas from 1987 to 2000, after receiving her PhD in women’s history from the University of Minnesota in 1987. Her specialization is women in business, and she has published two books on the topic, Engendering Business: Men and Women in the Corporate Office, 1870–1930, which won the 1995 Sierra Prize for best historical monograph from the Western Association of Women Historians, and Incorporating Women: A History of Women and Business in the United States.
“Being recognized by students and colleagues whom I respect so highly is an incredible honor,” she says. “I was bowled over by the nomination and am so proud to be selected. It’s especially meaningful to me that the award comes in part from students, knowing that they value my contributions to the life of the institution.”
Martin Vala
Vala has been a professor at UF for the past 37 years. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1964, and came to UF in 1966 after completing two postdoctoral fellowships with the National Science Foundation. His areas of specialization are spectroscopy and photochemistry, and the main thrust of his work is on the preparation and spectroscopic study of unstable species that may contribute to signals observed from interstellar space. He received the Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award in 1991 and a Teaching Incentive Program Award in 1994 and 1998.
“There are many things I like about being a professor here,” he says. “But I suppose the thing I like best is trying to stir up students’ curiosity, in particular about chemistry and science, but also about anything and everything. And this goes equally for when I am teaching or doing research with my students or giving a demonstration on some neat reaction that changes color or blows up! It is very flattering to be honored this way, especially since I love what I do.”
—Buffy Lockette
Photos:
Jane Gibson (Iwata)
Jane Dominguez (Kwolek-Folland)
Courtesy Department of Chemistry (Vala)