Ten Women Scholars Honored With Prestigious Awards

Yiyun Li, professor of English at the University of California Davis, received the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The award is given to honor an exceptional young writer and comes with a $30,000 prize.

Professor Li was honored for her novel Kinder Than Solitude (Random House, 2014). She is a graduate of Peking University in China. She came to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in immunology but made a choice to change careers. She holds a master’s degree and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa.

Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the Stanley C. Moore Professor and chair of the department of bioengineering at Rice University in Houston, has been selected to receive the 2014 Michael S. Field Biophotonics Award from the Optical Society of America. She will be honored at the society’s annual meeting in Tucson this October.

Professor Richards-Kortum is a graduate of the University of Nebraska. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in medical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Viola L. Acoff, professor and chair of the department of metallurgical and materials engineering at the University of Alabama, has been selected to receive the inaugural Ellen Swallow Richards Diversity Award from the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. The award honors an individual who has overcome personal or professional obstacles to achieve success in the field. Dr. Acoff will be presented with the award at the National Academies of Sciences in Washington this July.

Professor Acoff holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree in materials engineering, all from the University of Alabama Birmingham.

Helen Berman, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University has been chosen to receive the Benjamin Franklin Award from the Bioinformatics Organization. The award is given to individuals who have promoted free and open access to information in the life sciences. She will be honored at the BIO-IT World Conference in Boston on April 30.

Professor Berman is a graduate of Barnard College in New York City and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh.

Phebe Cramer, professor of psychology emerita at Williams College in Massachusetts, received the Bruno Klopfer Memorial Award from the Society of Personality Assessment. The award honors those with a long-term professional contribution to the field of personality assessment.

Professor Cramer retired from teaching in 2009. She is the author of several books including Protecting the Self: Defense Mechanisms in Action (Guilford Press, 2006). Dr. Cramer is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and holds a Ph.D. from New York University.

Nancy Folbre, professor emerita of economics at the University of Massachusetts, has been selected to receive the Beth Shulman Award from the National Empowerment Law Project. She is being honored for promoting employment issues of special concern to low-wage and women workers. She will receive the award in Washington, D.C., on April 30.

Professor Folbre joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts in 1991. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Texas and a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Massachusetts.

Janet Corson-Rikert received the Ollie B. Moten Award for Outstanding Service to One’s Institution from the American College Health Association. Dr. Corson-Rikert is the associate vice president for campus health and director of Gannett Health Services at Cornell University.

Dr. Corson-Ricket is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Medical School.

Nancy Gertner, professor of practice at Harvard Law School and a former federal judge, has been selected to receive the 2014 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the American Bar Association’s Commission on the Status of Women in the Profession. She will be honored at the ABA annual meeting in Boston on August 10.

Professor Gertner is a graduate of Barnard College and Yale Law School. She also earned a master’s degree in political science at Yale University.

Kacey DiGiacinto, an assistant professor in the department of physical education and health at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina, received the 2014 Hally Beth Poindexter Young Scholar Award from the National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education.

Dr. DiGiacinto holds a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees, and a Ph.D. in kinesiology, all from West Virginia University.

Dorinda Carter Andrews, associate professor of teacher education at Michigan State University, was chosen to receive the Scholars of Color in Education Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association. She will be honored at the association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia on April 5.

Dr. Carter Andrews earned an educational doctorate at Harvard University. She is the co-editor and contributing author of Contesting the Myth of a ‘Post Racial Era’: The Continued Significance of Race in U. S. Education (Peter Lang Publishing, 2013).