Four Women Professors Selected to Receive Notable Awards

Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak, a professor in the department of theatre and dance at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, received the 2018 Dr. Shuang Xin Tsao Award from the Shuang Xin Tsao Private Foundation. The award recognizes excellence in Jingju performance. Jingju, also called Chinese or Peking opera, combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance, and acrobatics. She is the first academic to win the award.

Dr. Wichmann-Walczak is a graduate of the University of Iowa, where she majored in theatre and Chinese. She holds a master’s degree in performance and a Ph.D. in Asian theatre from the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

Esther Sans Takeuchi, a Distinguished Professor of chemistry at Stony Brook University in New York, received a 2018 European Inventor Award from the European Patent Office. Professor Takeuchi was the only American to win an award. Dr. Takeuchi was honored for her development of a battery that extended the life of implanted cardiac defibrillators by fivefold.

Professor Takeuchi is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She earned a Ph.D. at Ohio State University.

Heather McPherson, a professor of art history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, received the 2018 Ireland Prize for Scholarly Distinction. The prize, made possible by the Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Endowment for Scholarly Distinction, comes with $5,000 and a Steuben crystal engraved award.

Dr. McPherson’s latest book is Art and Celebrity in the Age of Reynolds and Siddons (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017). She is a graduate of the University of Oregon, where she majored in French. Professor McPherson earned a master’s degree at the Sorbonne in Paris and a Ph.D. in art history at the University of Washington.

Emily Tanner-Smith, an associate professor in the department of counseling psychology and human services at the University of Oregon, received the Nan Tobler Award from the Society for Prevention Research. The society focuses on research on the causes and prevention of social, physical, and mental health and academic problems.

Dr. Tanner-Smith is a graduate of Belmont University in Nashville, where she majored in sociology. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.