Northwestern Faculty Honored

-Nina Kraus, professor of communication sciences and disorders and Hugh Knowles Chair in the School of Communication, is the recipient of the Gene D. Cohen Research Award in Creativity and Aging. The award recognizes research in the field of creativity and aging. Kraus investigates the neurobiology underlying speech and music perception and learning-associated brain plasticity. Through her research she has discovered biological mechanisms of aging and how software-based training and musical experience positively impact the adult brain. The award will be presented at an annual conference in New Orleans in November. 

-Emma Adam, professor of human development and social policy, is the recipient of the prestigious Curt Richter Award from the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology. The award recognizes early career contributions to the field of psychoneuroendocrinology. Adam is recognized as an expert in the developmental psychobiology of stress and sleep. Her research focuses on the role of stress, stress hormones and sleep in the development of mood and anxiety disorders in adolescents and young adults. The award was presented in the Netherlands mid August.

-Elizabeth Mai Smith, a graduate student in the School of Education and Social Policy, has been named a Knowles Science Teaching Foundation Teaching Fellow. Fellowships address the recruitment, training and retention of exceptional science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teacher candidates, with the aim of improving STEM education in the nation by building a stable, sustainable corps of STEM teacher leaders. In the fall of 2013, Smith will begin the Master of Science in Education program at Northwestern. In the future, she aspires to secure a teaching position in a high-needs school in the Chicago area.

-Celeste Watkins-Hayes, chair of the African American studies department and associate professor of African American studies and sociology, is the inaugural recipient of the Jacquelyn Johnson Jackson Early Career Award from the Association of Black Sociologists. The award is given to an individual who received a doctorate within the last 10 years, with a distinctive record of scholarly publication, a record of service that reflects emerging leadership in the areas of social justice, diversity, multiculturalism, and the dissemination of sociological ideas and a record of service to the Association of Black Sociologists. The award will be presented at an annual conference in August.

-Paul A. Greenberger, professor of medicine, is a recipient of the Outstanding Clinician Award from the World Allergy Organization (WAO). His current research interests include allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, severe asthma and using the neurotransmitter substance P as a novel approach to allergen immunotherapy. The award was presented at a WAO conference in Milan in June. 

-Laurie Zoloth, professor of religious studies, recently spoke at a conference at the Carter Center. The thrust of the conference was to develop the resources of religious texts and lived traditions toward the goal of expanding possibilities for women and girls in civil society. In her talk, Zoloth, the incoming president of the American Academy of Religion, focused on the “correlative relationship between rights and moral duties in Jewish traditions.” Areas of Zoloth’s research include ethics and civic life and bioethics and health justice theory. She also has done research on Jewish scriptural and narrative tradition as a source of ethics within a pluralistic democracy.