Six Women Academics Win Prestigious Awards

Sandra Faber, University Professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz, received the 2012 Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Professor Faber was recognized for lifetime achievement in astronomical research. Dr. Faber has been on the faculty at UC Santa Cruz since 1972.

A graduate of Swarthmore College, where she majored in physics, Dr. Faber earned a Ph.D. in astronomy at Harvard University.

Elaine F. Walker, the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Emory University, has been selected to receive the 2013 James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award for lifetime achievement from the Association of Psychological Science. Dr. Walker has been on the faculty at Emory since 1986.

A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Professor Walker holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Missouri.

Nalini Nadkarni, director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education at the University of Utah, received the The Monito del Giardino Prize from the Bardini and Peyron Monumental Parks Foundation at the University of Florence in Italy. Professor Nadkarni was honored for her “research on rainforest ecosystem ecology in Costa Rica and Washington State.”

Professor Nadkarni is a graduate of Brown University and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Donna Alvermann, Distinguished Research Professor in language and literacy education at the University of Georgia, received the 2012 Computers in Reading Research Award from the International Reading Association.

Professor Alvermann holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas. She earned a master of library science degree and a Ph.D. at Syracuse University.

Evelyn Wiener, director of the Student Health Service at the University of Pennsylvania, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American College Health Association. She has been with Penn’s Student Health Service since 1989 and was named director in 2000.

Dr. Wiener is a graduate of Brandeis University. She received her medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine.

Kimiko Gunji, professor emerita of Japanese arts and culture at the University of Illinois, received the Order of the Rising Sun from the government of Japan in a ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Professor Gunji retired from the University of Illinois in 2011 after serving on the faculty for 32 years. She is now in Japan continuing her study of ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arrangement.