2 KU special education professors win national awards for research and service

LAWRENCE -- Two University of Kansas professors have won major national awards for their work to improve the quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

The Arc of the United States, based in Silver Spring, Md., will present to Ann P. Turnbull the 2004 Distinguished Research Award and to H. Rutherford Turnbull III the Franklin Smith Award at its 2004 annual convention Nov. 18-21 in Boston. Both Turnbulls are professors of special education.

The Distinguished Research Award, which comes with $1,000, recognizes an outstanding researcher whose work has had a significant impact on the prevention or amelioration of mental retardation. The Franklin Smith Award, named for a longtime Arc activist, recognizes national service to the field of developmental disabilities and is the highest honor given by the Arc.

Ann and Rud Turnbull co-founded the Beach Center on Disability at KU and have served as its co-directors since 1988. They are nationally recognized for their research, policy development and advocacy for persons with disabilities and their families.

The Arc is the nation's largest volunteer-based organization devoted solely to issues concerning people with mental retardation and related developmental disabilities and their families.

The Beach Center on Disability is affiliated with the Department of Special Education at KU. It also is an affiliated center of the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, which seeks research-based solutions for the challenges of human and community development, disabilities and aging.