Media Contact: Pat JaCoby (619) 534-7404, or pjacoby@ucsd.edu

UCSD FACULTY MEMBERS TO RECEIVE, ‘AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE’ FEBRURY 16

Four University of California, San Diego faculty members will be cited for excellence in four disparate fields during a Feb. 16 meeting of the Chancellor’s Associates in the Faculty Club.

Honorees will include Fanny Howe, Department of Literature, named as "Excellence in Arts" awardee; Ping Chang Hu, Department of History, "Excellence in Teaching;" Nicholas Spitzer, Biology Department, "Outstanding Community Service," and Tony Yaksh, Departments of Anesthesiology and Pharmacology, "Excellence in Research."

The awards will be presented by UCSD Chancellor Robert C. Dynes, Chancellor’s Associates Chair Harold Agnew, and Danah Fayman, chair of the selection committee.

"Howe, a gifted writer, has left an indelible imprint on our department and campus and enhanced our reputation as a place where serious and inventive cutting-edge work is encouraged," noted Literature Department Chair Lisa Lowe. "Her work is widely reviewed in the mainstream and literary press and is the subject of graduate research, as well as scholarly articles on contemporary American writing. In the spring of 1998 she was invited to read from her work at the Library of Congress, one of the highest honors accorded an American poet, and the University of California Press will inaugurate its poetry series by publishing her Selected Poems this year."

Ping Chang Hu was recognized for establishing the instructional programs in both classical and modern Chinese that have been the essential foundation of undergraduate and graduate study in a variety of departments and programs in the arts, humanities and social sciences at UCSD. "Besides maintaining the high quality of her teaching, and providing excellent leadership to the Chinese language programs as a whole, Hu also has brought important new resources onto the campus," noted Michael Bernstein, History Department Chair. "She is deeply involved with local Chinese academies and has been helpful in efforts to introduce Chinese language instruction to the San Diego public schools."

"Nick Spitzer provided the leadership required to make the K-12 Outreach Task Force a vital success," said William McGinnis, Biology Department chair. "He engaged the community and approached every phase of the Task Force activities with imagination, foresight and thoroughness. And after enormous efforts to build a consensus and generate the final report, he continued to present it to the community, the press and other essential constituencies. This was in addition to his extensive efforts as chair of Community Outreach, service via the Speakers Bureau, and frequent community group meetings. At the same time, he has continued to maintain the very highest standards in his research and teaching commitments."

"Dr Yaksh is perceived, by any measure, to be one of the pioneers and continuing leaders in pain research and the understanding of spinal reflex pathways," notes Anesthesiology Department Chair John C. Drummond. "Millions of patients around the world, including patients with chronic pain states, patients undergoing elective surgical procedures and women in labor have received spinal or epidural narcotics as a direct and immediate consequence of the preclinical investigations done by Dr. Yaksh. His characterization of the complex pharmacology of the spinal cord and sensory fiber has led to what are considered to be among the seminal contributions to advances in the control of clinical pain."

Assisting Fayman on the Selections Committee were Chancellor’s Associates members Joan Bernstein, Esther Burnham, Mary Cory, Eloise Duff, Dick Hertzberg, Leanne Hull-MacDougall, Barry McComic, Robert McLeod, Pat Weil and Joan Wiener.