MIDDBRIEFS

Author: TAYLOR JOHNSTON AND CAROLINE STAUFFER

Sandwick secures 2005 Perkins Award

Associate Professor of Chemistry Roger Sandwick was recently named the recipient of the 2005 Perkins Award for Excellence in Teaching. An award ceremony was held in Sandwick's honor on Tuesday afternoon in McCardell Bicentennial Hall. The award is given annually for teaching excellence in science and mathematics to a member of the College's natural science division.

As part of the award, Sandwick's name will be included on plaques in Warner Hall and McCardell Bicentennial Hall, and he will receive a grant to support further professional development. Sandwick completed his undergraduate work at Alfred University and earned a doctorate in chemistry from Lehigh University in 1986. He taught at SUNY Plattsburgh, eventually becoming chair of the department, before relocating to Middlebury in 2002.

As a professor, Sandwick has obtained funding from such organizations as the National Science Foundation and The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. He has also co-authored several textbooks, including three study guides and a book of laboratory exercises. Sandwick's most recent literary effort is a book chapter he co-authored with Middlebury College 2004 graduate Matthew Johanson and Elizabeth Breuer '05.


Professors earn grants

Jeff Cason, associate professor of Political Science, has been granted a lecturing research award from the Fulbright Scholar Program. Cason will use the award to fund his 2005-2006 year on leave, which he plans to spend in Brazil teaching a course in Portuguese on "The Politics of Trade in the Americas: Regionalism and Hemispheric Integration" in the Department of Political Science and Sociology at the Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina in Florianopolis. He will also be working on a research project titled "Free Trade in the Americas? Brazil and the United States in the FTAA Negotiations."

Assistant Professor of History Louisa Burnham and Curt C. & Elise Silberman Professor of Jewish Studies Robert Schine have been selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad program this summer. Both professors will participate in a five-week seminar in Egypt titled, "Multiple Perspectives on the Middle East, the Arab and Islamic Worlds." Schine's development project for the program is titled, "Abraham's Children: Muslim-Jewish Relations." Burnham hopes to bring material from the multi-cultural world of medieval Cairo into several of her courses, including "The Mediterranean World" and "Medieval Cities."

The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded Associate Professor of French Charles Nunley a grant from its Summer Stipend Program for work this coming summer on a project titled, "Robert Desnos and the Question of Wartime Dissent, 1940-1944."


Psychology dept. funds student summer work

Thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, the Psychology Department will continue funding students' summer research. The REU Site project "Research in Psychology: Discovering the Process" provides funding for nine students - four from Middlebury, five from other institutions - to conduct research this summer with members of the psychology department faculty. Jason Arndt, assistant professor of Psychology and Michelle McCauley, associate director of Psychology are co-directors for the project.


College recognizes, honors staff excellence

The recipients of the 2005 Staff Recognition Awards are Ed DeMatties, maintenance carpenter, Amy Holbrook, academic coordinator in the Economics department, Mary Reed, catering coordinator and Joanna Shipley, academic coordinator in the Biology department. They were selected from nominations submitted by members of faculty and staff on the basis of their leadership records, stewardship and community service during their years on the staff of Middlebury College. Rudolf K. Haerle, Jr., professor emeritus of Sociology, endowed these awards as a way of recognizing the many members of the Middlebury College staff who contribute to the vitality of the College.