Eight faculty receive Mid-Career Awards

Eight faculty who have excelled in the first half of their careers have received a boost for the second half through UW–Madison’s 1998 Mid-Career Awards.

The $60,000 awards are provided by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and awarded each year by the Graduate School’s research committee. The program recognizes faculty anywhere from five to 20 years past their first promotion to a tenured position.

The annual awards began in 1995 with the recognition that faculty in mid- career are often in their most productive phase of teaching and research.

Winners are:

• Professor Hans Adler, German.
  Adler joined the department in 1990 after 12 years of teaching in Germany and Canada. He teaches German literature, aesthetics and philosophy from the 18th century to the present. During the last decade, he has concentrated his research activities on the history of reason.

• Joanne Cantor, communication arts.
  Cantor’s studies of how children’s cognitive development influences their emotional responses to television have just culminated in a book titled Mommy, I’m Scared, which is due out this year. Her nationally publicized research on television ratings helped force the television industry to amend its new rating system to accommodate the needs and wishes of parents.

• Robert Fillingame, biomolecular chemistry.
  Fillingame, who joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1975, studies the means by which ATP is synthesized during oxidative phosphorylation, focusing on the mechanism of proton translocation of the ATP synthase. He is recognized internationally for his efforts in this area. Also known as an outstanding teacher in the Medical School, Fillingame has taught human biochemistry to medical students for 21 years.

• Raymond Fonck, engineering physics.
  Over the past decade, Fonck has led the development of modern plasma spectroscopy and is recognized internationally for his contributions. He has recently pioneered an exciting new line of innovative plasma confinement experiments. Fonck has shown dedication and originality in undergraduate teaching.

• Colin Jefcoate, pharmacology.
  Jefcoate, who also directs the Environmental Toxicology Center, has been a leader in understanding the physiological functions of hemoproteins that activate molecular oxygen. Jefcoate’s research on this family of hemoprotein enzymes has contributed to understanding of their role in the synthesis of steroid hormones and their links to cancer. His laboratory recently discovered a gene whose deficiency causes congenital glaucoma in humans.

• Paul Kaufman, ophthalmology and visual sciences.
  Kaufman studies the physiology, pharmacology, neural control and aging of the pressure-regulating and focusing mechanisms in the eye in relation to glaucoma and presbyopia. He has provided major insights into these important ocular diseases, while providing outstanding clinical care to glaucoma patients and service to government and philanthropic agencies.

• Donald Kettl, political science.
  Kettl represents the Wisconsin Idea by his ability to integrate teaching, research and public service. Kettl offers the ideal of a theoretically oriented scholar in the policy sciences; his work is central to many of the major theoretical debates of policy development and implementation. He sees his scholarly work as having a true teaching component that must serve not only to inform other scholars but to educate practitioners.

• James Weisshaar, chemistry.
  Weisshaar studies gas phase transition metal reactions with hydrocarbons using lasers, molecular beams and mass spectrometry. These detailed measurements provide benchmarks for modern theoretical methods that will eventually aid in the design of more efficient catalysts. He received a Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 1993 for his role in developing a research-oriented freshman chemistry class.