KU News Release

Sept. 15, 2008
Contact: Kevin Boatright, Office of Research and Graduate Studies, (785) 864-7240.

Two KU faculty recognized with prestigious Higuchi Awards for research achievement

LAWRENCE — Two professors from the University of Kansas and two from Kansas State University have received Higuchi-KU Endowment Research Achievement Awards for 2008.

The awards, now in their 26th year, honor outstanding accomplishments in research by faculty members at KU and other Kansas Board of Regents institutions. The prestigious recognition program was established by Takeru Higuchi, a distinguished professor at KU from 1967 to 1983, and his late widow, Aya.

Four individual awards are given annually. They are named for former leaders of KU Endowment who played key roles in recruiting Higuchi to KU. Their longtime financial support of KU helped enhance university research throughout the state of Kansas.

Each award includes a plaque and a $10,000 grant for ongoing research efforts. The award money can be used for research materials, summer salaries, fellowship matching funds, research assistants or other support related to research.

The 2008 Higuchi Award winners will be recognized formally Nov. 6 at a ceremony and reception at the Adams Alumni Center in Lawrence.

Balfour Jeffrey Award in Humanities and Social Sciences
Charles C. Eldredge is the Hall Distinguished Professor of American Art and Culture at KU. He was director of the Spencer Museum of Art at KU for 11 years, after which he spent six years in Washington, D.C., as director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Art. He returned to KU in 1988. During his career, he has taught and published extensively on such prominent American artists as Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley and John Steuart Curry.

Irvin Youngberg Award for Applied Sciences

Charles R. Greenwood is a professor in the Department of Applied Behavioral Science, senior scientist in the Life Span Institute and director of the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project in Kansas City, Kan., one of the Life Span Institute’s 13 affiliated centers. He came to KU in 1978, and his research has focused on how certain environmental factors in the experiences of young children in poverty lead to poor academic performance and other social problems. He developed an innovative and successful set of classroom procedures — Classwide Peer Tutoring — designed to enhance student engagement and academic outcomes in reading, spelling and math.

Olin Petefish Award in Basic Science
Christopher M. Sorensen is a University Distinguished Professor of Physics at K-State. He joined the faculty in 1977 and is an internationally known expert in the area of particulate systems and soft condensed matter physics. This research is relevant to the study and synthesis of nanoparticles, and he holds six patents. He was the 2003 recipient of the American Association of Aerosol Research David Sinclair Award and is a past president of that organization. In 2007, he was named the CASE/Carnegie Foundation National Professor of the Year for doctoral and research universities.

Dolph Simons Award in Biomedical Sciences

Larry J. Takemoto is a University Distinguished Professor of Biology at K-State. He joined the faculty in 1979, and his primary research has centered on the human eye, especially the role of lens proteins in the formation of cataracts. He has also worked to develop substances to deliver anti-cataract agents in the lens. He is a past president of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology and a past chair of the Lens and Cataract Panel of the National Eye Institute.

KU Endowment is the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.

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