Prestigious Honors and Awards for Seven Women Scholars at American Universities

Jennifer Doudna, the Li Ka Shing Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, will receive the 2016 Canada Gairdner International Award from the Gairdner Foundation in Toronto. The annual award, which comes with a prize of 100,000 Canadian dollars, honors medical researchers whose work contributes significantly to improving the quality of human life.

Dr. Doudna is a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Fay S. Adams, an associate professor of piano at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, has been named Music Teacher of the Year by the Music Teacher National Association. She is being honored at the association’s annual meeting in San Antonio. Professor Adams is retiring at the end of the academic year.

Adams is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and holds a master’s degree in piano performance from the University of Tennessee.

Rebecca U. Thorpe, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Washington, has been selected as the recipient of the D.B. Hardeman Prize from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation. Thee award is given to the author of the year’s best book on the U.S. Congress. Dr. Thorpe was honored for her book The American Warfare State: The Domestic Politics of Military Spending (University of Chicago Press, 2014).

Dr. Thorpe joined the faculty at the University of Washington in 2010. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. She holds a Ph.D. in government and politics from the University of Maryland.

Heather Leah Ryerson Fountain, associate professor of art education and crafts at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, received the 2016 National Higher Education Art Educator of the Year Award from the National Art Education Association.

Dr. Fountain is a graduate of the University of Maine. She earned a master’s degree in art education at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University and a Ph.D. in art education and curriculum and instruction at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the Malcolm Gillis University Professor and professor of bioengineering and electrical and computer engineering at Rice University, received the 2016 Pierre Galleti Award from the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the institute. Dr. Richards-Kortum is the first woman to win the honor.

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

Allison Beese, an assistant professor of material science and engineering at Pennsylvania State University, has been selected to receive the 2016 Non-Tenured Faculty Award from 3M Corporation. In addition to the award, 3M will provide $15,000 to Dr. Beese each year for the next three years to support her research.

Dr. Beese is a 2005 graduate of Pennsylvania State University. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rita Dove, the Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia, was selected to receive the Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement from the creative writing program at Oregon State University. The award is given to a writer for a substantial body of critically acclaimed work as well as for mentoring young writers. The award comes with a $20,000 honorarium.

Professor Dove has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Humanities Medal, and the National Medal of Arts. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate of the United States. Professor Dove is a summa cum laude graduate of the Miami University in Ohio and holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa.