Seven to receive Faculty-Staff Excellence Awards

SIU News

April 17, 2017Seven to receive Faculty-Staff Excellence Awards
by Pete Rosenbery
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois University Carbondale will honor seven members of the faculty and staff for superior scholarship, teaching and service. 
Interim Chancellor Brad Colwell will host a ceremony and reception honoring the recipients of the Faculty and Staff Excellence Awards, as well as campus authors, at 3 p.m., Thursday, April 20, in Morris Library’s John C. Guyon Auditorium. 
The recipients are: Michael J. Lydy (Scholar Excellence Award), Kathleen A. Pericak-Spector (Teaching Excellence Award, tenured and tenure-track), Timothy J. Ting, (Teaching Excellence Award, non-tenure track), Jennida M. Chase (Early Career Faculty Excellence Award), Nanditha Balasubramanian (Women of Distinction), and Robert A. Baer and Elizabeth A. (Liz) Hunter (Staff Excellence Award). 
Here are profiles of the recipients: 
Scholar Excellence Award 
This award “recognizes and promotes outstanding research and creative endeavors,” and is given only to those “who have made outstanding contributions to their discipline” and who are “widely recognized for their achievements by other scholars in the field.” 
Michael J. Lydy, professor, in the Center for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences (CFAAS) in the Department of Zoology, started at “sonic speed” when he came to SIU Carbondale from Wichita State University in 2001. Lydy, who has a cross appointment in chemistry, continues to be a “productive powerhouse,” according to a letter of nomination written by James E. Garvey, interim vice chancellor for research and CFAAS director. 
Lydy is “intense, demanding, and clearly driven,” Garvey wrote. “Mike runs a tight ship, is highly competitive, and fights for what he needs to be the best scientist possible. This makes him the productive powerhouse that he is and will continue to be.” 
Blair Siegfried, professor and chair of the University of Florida’s Entomology and Nematology Department, wrote that Lydy is one of the “preeminent scientists in the world working on toxicology of environmental contaminants ...

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