Winners of Vilas Associates Competition announced

The Graduate School has announced 26 faculty winners of the Vilas Associates Competition.

The Vilas Associates Competition recognizes new and ongoing research of the highest quality and significance. Recipients are chosen competitively by the divisional Graduate School Research Committees on the basis of a detailed proposal.

Here are the winners, and their departments:

• Samer Alatout, Community and Environmental Sociology
• Weibo Cai, Radiology
• Paul Campagnola, Biomedical Engineering
• Lisa Cooper, English
• Gheorghe Craciun, Mathematics
• Qiang Cui, Chemistry
• Natalia de Leon, Agronomy
• Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong, Biomedical Engineering
• Erica Halverson, Curriculum and Instruction
• Stephen Hilyard, Art
• Robert Howard, Communication Arts
• George Huber, Chemical and Biological Engineering
• Jiming Jiang, Horticulture
• Adam Kern, East Asian Languages and Literature
• Nam Kim, Anthropology
• Michael Massoglia, Sociology
• Dane Morgan, Materials Science and Engineering
• Donald Moynihan, La Follette School of Public Affairs
• Dan Negrut, Mechanical Engineering
• John Orrock, Zoology
• Ryan Owens, Political Science
• Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, History
• Laura Schwendinger, School of Music
• Eric Shusta, Chemical and Biological Engineering
• Michael Titelbaum, Philosophy
• Stefan Westerhoff, Physics

The competition is open to tenure-track and tenured faculty, from the assistant professor level to professors within 20 years of their tenure date. Winners receive up to two-ninths of research salary support (including the associated fringe costs) for both summers 2014 and 2015, as well as a $12,500 flexible research fund in each of the two fiscal years. Faculty paid on an annual basis are not eligible for the summer salary support but are eligible for the flexible fund portion of this award.