Gajanan Bhat, professor of materials science and engineering and director of the Nonwoven Materials Research Laboratory, was honored with the 2014 TAPPI Nonwovens Engineers and Technologist Division Technical Award and Mark Hollingsworth Prize in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the nonwovens field as both an educator and as a researcher.
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Barry Bruce, professor of biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology, spoke at the National Congress of Science, Technology and Society conference in Costa Rica. While there, he advocated for sustainability in education and research with the Costa Rican vice minister of science and technology. He also gave the keynote address and met with students, scientists, and engineers to discuss bioenergy opportunities.
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Asafa Jalata, professor of sociology, has been awarded a Fulbright grant for the 2014–2015 academic year. Jalata will be teaching and conducting research on the evolution of democracy in Botswana. Specifically, he will be teaching the sociology of development at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Botswana, Gaborone, and will be engaging in research to write articles and a comparative book entitled Cultural Capital and Democracy in Botswana and Ethiopia. His work focuses on factors that have contributed to the economic and democratic successes of the country and how more successes can be achieved.
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Larry Taylor, professor in earth and planetary sciences and director of the Planetary Geosciences Institute, has been elected a member of the American Geophysical Union for his exceptional contributions to Earth and space sciences. Taylor is a leading expert on the mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry of rocks and soils on the moon.