Education
Outstanding Article: Education profs Clifford T. Mayes and Charles R. Graham Jr. (BS ’94) and former doctoral student P. Clint Rogers (BS ’02) received the Outstanding Article Award from the journalEducational Technology Research and Development for their study on the cross-cultural delivery of online instruction. Research Kudos: Teacher education prof Robert V. Bullough received the Michael Huberman Award for Excellence in Research on the Lives of Teachers from the American Educational Research Association.
Engineering and Yechnology
Fellow Fellows: Engineering profs Michael A. Jensen (BS ’90) and David G. Long (BS ’82) were both named IEEE Fellows by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Super Computers:Industrial design students met with company executives and pitched product ideas that included a line of ultra-mobile PCs for Dell and a line of mesh chairs for Orem, Utah–based Mity-Lite.
Family, Home, and Social Sciences
No Satisfaction: A recent study coauthored by economics prof Lars J. Lefgren (BA ’96) concludes that the federal No Child Left Behind law may boost reading and math scores but fails to give children the satisfying school experience desired by their parents.
Fine Arts and Communications
Grand Artists: In January the School of Music launched the Nancy Peery Marriott Visiting Artist Endowment to bring professional artists to teach and perform at BYU. Renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade was the first guest artist. Big News: Broadcast students Marco A. Villarreal (’08) and Joshua Molina (’08) were two of 10 students nationwide to receive Meredith-Cronkite Fellowships from the Meredith Corp. and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
Health and Human Performance
Health Tracks: Beginning fall 2008, the public-health major will be revamped to include several tracks of study: health promotion, environmental or occupational health, epidemiology, and health science.Dancing Guest: H. Patrick Debenham (BS ’73), professor of modern dance, spent January in Minnesota as a guest choreographer at the Dance Educators Coalition of Minnesota.
Humanities
Kafka Credit: Keith L. Johnson (BA ’98), assistant professor of English, received the first-ever Kafka Prize for Emerging Scholars from the Kafka Society of America. Johnson’s essay was distinguished from a field of international submissions. Yo Hablo: BYU’s satellite Foreign Language Assessment Testing Service (FLATS) administered 1,300 tests for foreign language credit in 2007.
Law School
Books of Law: Law school faculty, organized by law prof Lynn D. Wardle (BA ’71), recently donated a shipment of books—two and a half pallets worth of books—to China’s Law Spirit program in Beijing. This is the third shipment the faculty have sent to law programs in China. New Joint Degree: Beginning in fall semester 2008, the law school will offer a joint juris doctorate and master of public policy degree (a JD/MPP).
Life Sciences
Merit Recognized: Dietetics prof Diana L. McGuire (BS ’74) received the Utah Dietetics Association Award of Merit for her contributions to and leadership in Utah dietetics programs.
Marriott School
Entrepreneurial Spirit: The Marriott School’s chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization (CEO) won first-place awards for Best Chapter Business Plan, Best Marketing Plan, and Best in Teaching Entrepreneurship at the CEO national conference. Top Tax: At the Deloitte Tax Case Study National Competition, BYU accounting students placed first in the undergraduate division and second in the graduate division.
Nursing
New Dean: Patricia McArthur Ravert (AS ’74) was appointed associate dean for academic undergraduate affairs in the BYU College of Nursing.
Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Front-Page News: Chemistry chair Paul B. Farnsworth (BS ’77) and his research group were featured on the cover of the international journal Spectrochimica Acta in recognition of their research on the imaging of plasma composition. Mountainous Moon: Using images from NASA’s Cassini Radar, assistant professor of astronomy Jani Radebaugh (BS ’93) helped discover and analyze mountains on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Her findings were published in the December 2007 issue of the astronomy journal Icarus.
Religious Education
A Historical Achievement: The Mormon History Association awarded its Geraldine McBride Woodward Award for the best publication on the international history of Mormonism to the book Taking the Gospel to the Japanese, 1901–2001, edited by Reid L. Neilson (BA ’96), assistant professor of Church history, and Van C. Gessel, professor of Japanese.
