2013 – Research Awards

Thomas Mote

ovprweb on March 22, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2016

Thomas Mote, professor of geography, is a world-renowned expert on the impact of climate change and variability on the Earth’s water cycle, particularly the “cryosphere,” which includes ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and snow cover. Some of his most notable work involves the impact of large-scale changes in atmospheric pressure and winds on the loss of ice from the Greenland ice sheet. Increased ice melt leads to greater runoff of meltwater, which contributes to global sea level rise. Mote uses satellite data to track changes in surface melting on the Greenland ice sheet and he has developed cutting-edge techniques and algorithms used by the scientific community to understand Greenland’s response to a changing climate. His work has helped scientists better understand how a pattern of atmospheric circulation known as the North Atlantic Oscillation can lead to massive melt events.

Previous Award
Creative Research Medal 2013

Daniel Krashen

on March 2, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2013

Daniel Krashen, associate professor of mathematics, is recognized for his contributions to a branch of algebra known as “field patching.” Field patching assigns geometric shapes to complex algebraic systems called function fields. The method uses the tools of topology—an area of mathematics concerned with describing shapes—to more easily scrutinize the properties of equations in function fields. These are pure mathematical problems requiring great technical knowledge to understand and solve. While it is difficult to predict how or when discoveries in this field might translate into applied technologies for biology, physics or engineering, Krashen’s research creates an essential scaffolding from which applied technologies may emerge. These algebraic structures have deep underpinnings in the understanding of fundamental applications of mathematics from the symmetries and structure of space, time and matter, to the optimization of error-correcting codes in cell-phone communication.

Chris Cuomo

on March 2, 2016

Creative Research Medal 2013

Chris Cuomo, professor of philosophy and women’s studies, is recognized for her unique and groundbreaking interdisciplinary work on the epistemology and ethics of global climate change. In 2003, Cuomo formed a research team with physical geographers who study the history and resilience of permafrost. Drawing upon her more than 25 years of scholarship related to ethics, feminist theory, social justice and environmentalism, Cuomo used research methods informed by feminist epistemology to integrate interviews with members of vulnerable populations into scientific research on landscape changes on Alaska’s North Slope. Her team’s interviews with Iñupiaq elders resulted in the creation of a community-based geographic information system that incorporates cultural information and memories along with geo-specific information about changes in the landscape. This unique blend of quantitative and qualitative data not only clarified the ecological changes in the North Slope region, but also produced excellent resources on the subsistence practices and gendered divisions of labor for contemporary Iñupiaq communities.

Noel Fallows

on March 2, 2016

Distinguished Research Professor 2015

Noel Fallows is Associate Dean of International and Multidisciplinary Programs and the senior Professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages. Literary critic, historian, translator, and editor, Fallows is one of the foremost authorities in the world in the field of Medieval and Renaissance chivalric culture. His work focuses on Western Europe, with particular emphasis on the Iberian Peninsula. He has published a large number of influential books and articles on topics as varied as jousts, tournaments, military medicine, early equine medicine, knightly cults of wounds, propaganda campaigns, psychological warfare, mounted combat and riding techniques and arms and armor. The clear and accessible style of his books and articles offers a wide range of readers the opportunity to consider social and political questions from the past that remain powerfully resonant today, including questions of war and peace as well as the complexities of relations between Christians and Muslims. His research publications have garnered numerous international awards, and have been widely acclaimed for their innovative interdisciplinary research, meticulous textual analysis, and thorough cultural contextualization.

Previous Award

Albert Christ-Janer Award 2014
Creative Research Medal 2013