UMD News Releases

University of Minnesota System Awards:

Horace T. Morse-University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education
This honor is awarded to exceptional candidates nominated by collegiate units in their quest to identify excellence in undergraduate education.

Howard Mooers, Professor, Geology
Dr. Mooers received his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Minnesota Minneapolis in 1988 with an emphasis in glacial geology, glaciology, and hydrogeology. He has been an associate professor at UMD since 1991, and was the co-director of the Environmental Studies Major at UMD from 1995 - 2000. He has also served as Associate Editor for the Journal of Sedimentary Research, 1996 - 2000.

Dr. Mooers has taught 20 different courses in his 13 years at UMD. He has been very active in advising, supervising graduate and undergraduate students, UROP projects and advising environmental studies internships. In addition, Dr. Mooers has been awarded over $2,600,000 in research funding.

Professor Mooers major research interests focus on the Quaternary history of the southern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, subglacial groundwater flow and its role in controlling glacial dynamics, genesis of glacial landforms, comminution of rock debris entrained in glacier ice and the origin of till, coastal and coral reef geology, arid region geomorphology, groundwater flow and characteristic scales of variability in glacial sedimentary sequences; processes and spatial distribution of aquifer recharge; computer reconstruction of Pleistocene ice sheets and modeling of subglacial groundwater systems; geoarchaeology and early human settlement in the Midwestern United States; and periglacial environments and processes.

John Tate Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising
This award recognizes and rewards the contribution that academic advising makes in helping students formulate and achieve intellectual, career, and personal goals.

Linda Miller-Cleary, Professor, English Education
Dr. Miller-Cleary received her Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) from the University of Massachusetts. She is the program coordinator of the communication arts/literature major. Her research and publications include two books on writing and motivation., two books on indigenous literacy and one book on applied linguistics. Dr. Miller-Cleary is also a Morse Alumni Distinguished Teacher.

Jean G. Blehart Distinguished Teaching Award
This honor is given each year to a faculty member who has made contributions to the teaching mission of UMD that are of extraordinary quality.

Praveen Aggarwal, Associate Professor, Management Studies
Dr. Praveen Aggarwal, Associate Professor of Management Studies in the Labovitz School of Business and Economics, is this year's recipient of the Jean G. Blehart Distinguished Teaching Award.

Dr. Aggarwal teaches Marketing Strategy and Business-To-Business Marketing. He has several years of experience as a senior executive in the food products industry. He also has an M.A. in economics and an M.A. in management. Dr. Aggarwal received his Ph.D. in Marketing from Syracuse University and has been teaching at UMD since 1998. His research interests are in the areas of consumer decision making processes, decision delegation, and price and non-price promotions. His research has been published in Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Consumer Marketing, and the Journal of Product and Brand Management. He has presented research papers at various national and international conferences including those sponsored by AMA, ACR, and AMS.

Professor Aggarwal is a past recipient of the UMD Outstanding Faculty Adviser Award, the LSBE Outstanding Professor Award, and has been selected for listing in the "Who's Who Among Students in American Universities." Dr. Aggarwal has also been recognized by the American Academy of Distinguished Students for excellence in research, teaching and graduate studies.

Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award
This honor is given each semester to recognize the research contributions of a UMD faculty member and to provide opportunities to present developing research to a broad UMD audience.

Viktor Zhdankin, Professor of Chemistry
Viktor V. Zhdankin was born in 1956 in Sverdlovsk, Russia. His M.S. (1978), Ph.D. (1981), and Dr.Chem.Sci. (1986) degrees were earned at Moscow State University in the research laboratories of Professor N. S. Zefirov. In 1987 he was appointed as Senior Research Fellow - Head of Research Group at the Department of Chemistry, Moscow State University, in Russia. He moved to the University of Utah in 1990, where he worked for three years as Instructor of organic chemistry and Research Associate with Professor P. J. Stang. In 1993 he joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota Duluth where he is currently a Professor of Chemistry. Professor Zhdankin is one the world's most renowned experts in the organic chemistry of hypervalent main group elements. His research involves the development and application of new reagents for organic synthesis based on polyvalent iodine compounds. He has published over 170 refereed research papers, which are widely cited by organic chemists in many countries. He serves on Editorial Boards of several international journals and is a member of the Japanese Forum on Iodine Utilization. His previous awards include the prestigious national fellowship from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus foundation.

Outstanding Faculty Adviser Awards
The Outstanding Faculty Adviser Award is given each year to faculty members who have demonstrated outstanding service to their students.

Joie Acheson, Instructor of Psychology, College of Education and Human Service Professions. She serves as the coordinator for Freshman Camp , teaches about the spiritual journey, works with freshman advising and supervises the peer advising program for the psychology department.

Pat Dennis, Professor of Theatre, School of Fine Arts. She has served and guided theatre students at UMD since 1979.

Paul Siders, Associate Professor of Chemistry, College of Science and Engineering. Along with his advising duties in chemistry, Dr. Siders has also served as lead academic advisor for the pre pharmacy program.

Randy Skalberg, Assistant Professor of Accounting, Labovitz School of Business and Economics. Professor Skalberg is the faculty advisor to the UMD Scholars Club and is the coordinator of the UMD Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.

Neil Storch, Professor of History, College of Liberal Arts. Professor Storch has been a dedicated and exemplary mentor and advisor at UMD for 30 years.

Albert Tezla Teacher/Scholar Award
This award is given annually to a faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts or the School of Fine Arts who has an exceptional and effective teaching style that emphasizes the worth of research in a learned discipline and the maturing impact scholarly activity has on the development of human attitudes and values.

Tom Isbell, Associate Professor, Theatre
Professor Isbell received his B.F.A. degree from the University of Illinois in 1980 and his M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama in 1984. Before coming to UMD as an assistant professor in 1994, Tom spent his professional career in theatre, film and t.v. He has written and performed in three one-person plays including ?Me and JFK? which he performed in New York and Los Angeles. He has directed two plays at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Professor Isbell was recently named a Horace T. Morse Distinguished Teacher, the highest undergraduate teaching honor given at the University of Minnesota. Students and faculty alike regard Professor Isbell as a master teacher and scholar who has had a profound effect on present and former students.

National Award:

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Minnesota Professor of the Year
This award recognizes outstanding educators in all 50 states, based on their extraordinary dedication to undergraduate teaching.

Joe Gallian, Professor, Math and Statistics
Dr. Gallian received his Ph.D. from Notre Dame 1971, and has been teaching at UMD since 1972. His previous honors and awards are numerous and include the Council on Undergraduate Research Fellow Award; the UMD College of Science and Engineering Anderson Scholar/Teacher Award; the University of Minnesota Continuing Education and Extension Distinguished Teaching Award; the UMD Blehart Distinguished Teaching Award; the University of Minnesota Horace T. Morse Award for Contributions to Undergraduate Education; and was named by a Duluth newspaper as among "100 Great Duluthians of the 20th Century".

Dr. Gallian is widely published with numerous books and articles to his credit. He has also been extremely successful in securing grant funding, having been funded for 27 years from the National Science Foundation; 19 years from the National Security Agency; and two years from the Minnesota Humanities Commission, for a total of $1,420,017 in funding. His interests include graph theory, finite group theory, and combinatorics.