Awards and honors recognize faculty accomplishments

University of Rochester faculty members receive national honors from professional and scholarly organizations.

University of Rochester faculty regularly earn regional, national, and international awards and honors for their professional contributions to research, scholarship, education, and community engagement.

As part of an ongoing series, we're spotlighting their accomplishments.

Janet Berlo wins Native American Art Studies Association's Lifetime Achievement Award

Janet Berlo, who retired from the University faculty after 23 years, was recently recognized for her more than 40 years of contributions to the scholarly field of Native American Art. (Photo by Allen Topolski)

A professor emerita in the Department of Art and Art History, Janet Berlo has been honored by the Native American Art Studies Association with the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award for her more than 40 years of contributions to the scholarly field of Native American art.

Berlo, who retired from the University after 23 years in 2020, is an expert on Native American art and visual culture, the politics of representation, and museum studies and critiques. Most recently, she penned Not Native American Art: Fakes, Replicas, and Invented Traditions (University of Washington Press, 2023), which traces the historical and social contexts of forgeries, imitations, replications, and appropriations by both Native and non-Native makers. The book is based on decades of research and interviews with curators, collectors, restorers, Native artists, and replica makers.

In April 2024, Confluences: A Celebration of Janet Berlo was held at Rochester to recognize Berlo's career as a scholar, educator, artist, and mentor.

• Read about Berlo's work on the proliferation of indigenous fakes and replicas-and the blurry line between admiration and appropriation.

Marc Brown honored for lifetime achievement in Mohs surgery

Marc Brown, a professor of dermatology, received the Frederic E. Mohs Award for Career Achievement from the American College of Mohs Surgery at its annual meeting.

Mohs surgery is a technique that removes skin cancer in stages, one tissue layer at a time. The award recognizes individuals who promote Mohs surgery throughout their career with teaching, clinical practice, scientific contributions, innovation, mentorship, and service to ACMS.

Brown lectures and teaches peers and students at local and national meetings focusing on Mohs surgery, melanoma, facial reconstruction, and challenging and unusual skin cancers. He performs Mohs surgery on over 2,000 patients per year and has performed a total of more than 25,000 Mohs procedures.

• Learn more about Brown's contributions to the field.

Peter Christensen awarded Berlin Prize

<

Art history professor Peter Christensen was one of 23 scholars recognized by the American Academy in Berlin.

Peter Christensen, the Arthur Satz Professor of Humanities, has been named a recipient of the prestigious Berlin Prize, an annual award intended to foster transatlantic dialogue in the arts, humanities, and public policy.

The prize, awarded by the American Academy in Berlin, includes a semester-long fellowship in Berlin, where recipients are given the time and resources for scholarly pursuits.

Christensen intends to use his fellowship in fall 2024 to begin writing a book on what it means to "live with dignity" that stands to be the first to approach the question from the standpoint of design and architecture.

• Read more about the book and Christensen's past scholarship.

Laura Ghazal recognized as Advanced Practice Trailblazer

Laura Ghazal, recipient of the Advanced Practice Trailblazer award, was honored for being a voice for adolescent cancer survivors.

Healio and the Oncological Nursing Association have named Laura Ghazal, an assistant professor at the School of Nursing, as the Advanced Practice Trailblazer of 2024.

The award recognizes her work as a nursing researcher and advocate for adolescent and young adult cancer survivors.

Ghazal's research interests sit at the intersection of both her personal and professional experiences in cancer care, nursing, and economics-with a focus on the cancer survivorship needs of adolescent and young adults

• Find out more about Ghazal's research pursuits and her road to Rochester.

Jill Halterman honored with national mentorship award

Jill Halterman, chair of the Department of Pediatrics and physician-in-chief of Golisano Children's Hospital, was recognized with the Academic Pediatric Association (APA) Miller Sarkin Mentoring Award for Research during the 2024 Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Toronto.

The award recognizes APA members who have provided outstanding mentorship to learners or colleagues, both locally and nationally, and served as a model to others.

Halterman has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and secured more than $28 million in extramural research funding to investigate methods to improve the delivery of care for children with asthma.

• Learn about Halterman's distinguished research career and passion for mentoring. (URMC intranet login required)

Ehsan Hoque selected to help influence climate change and health policy

Ehsan Hoque is one of 18 research leaders affiliated with the US National Academy of Medicine and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences selected to participate in a program aimed at developing the next generation of climate and health leaders. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

Ehsan Hoque, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science, is part of a new bilateral policy project to develop the next generation of climate and health leaders. A collaboration between the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the US National Academy of Medicine, the project offers research leaders of the future the opportunity to gain policy experience and to connect with international peers.

The project was designed for researchers and other professionals working in the health research sector, who are interested in engaging with policymakers and translating their research into benefits for society.

Hoque is one of 18 future research leaders affiliated with the US National Academy of Medicine and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences who have been selected to participate in the project, which started in March 2024.

• Read about Hoque being named an "emerging leader" by National Academy of Medicine.

Jennifer Kyker, Sevak Mkrtchyan named Fulbright US Scholars

Two Rochester faculty members will soon be heading overseas after being named Fulbright US Scholars for the 2024-25 academic year.

Jennifer Kyker, a professor of ethnomusicology in the Arthur Satz Department of Music in the School of Arts & Sciences and at the Eastman School of Music, will introduce an important archival collection of images by pioneering Zimbabwean photographer Chicago Dzviti to local and global audiences in Zimbabwe.

Kyker previously arranged for Dzviti's portfolio of more than 4,000 images to be permanently housed at Rochester. She intends to curate selected images as part of a multimedia exhibit at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in 2025, and to collaborate with faculty and graduate students at the University of Zimbabwe to build a digital archive parallelling the physical exhibit.

Dzviti, who died in 1995, captured a broad spectrum of Zimbabwean social, cultural, and musical life through his lens.

Sevak Mkrtchyan, an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and codirector of graduate studies in mathematics, will head to Armenia, where he will teach a course on stochastic processes and organize a research seminar for students at Yerevan State University.

In addition to teaching, Mkrtchyan intends to conduct research on the completeness properties of random integer sequences, random polymers, and on some aspects of asymptotic representation theory.

Mkrtchyan, a native of Armenia, has a long history of engagement in that country, including organizing a program on Markov chains in 2021 and initiating the online Yerevan Mathematics Colloquium. More recently, with the help of local institutions in Yerevan, he has been organizing an online lecture series to deliver high-quality courses at the level of honors programs in the United States to talented high school and undergraduate students in Armenia.

The Fulbright US Scholars program is the flagship United States academic exchange effort, administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars on behalf of the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

• Check out the Fulbright Scholars website for a summary of the program.

Lainie Ross awarded Distinguished Graduate Award fromPenn

Lainie Ross was honored by the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

Lainie Ross, Dean's Professor and the inaugural chair of the Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics, received the University of Pennsylvania's Distinguished Graduate Award, for her nationally and internationally recognized work addressing ethical and policy issues in transplant, pediatrics, genetics, research, and health care disparities. Ross is also the director of Rochester's Paul M Schyve, MD Center for Bioethics and holds secondary appointments in the Departments of Pediatrics and Philosophy.

With the award, Ross, who earned her medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, joins the ranks of accomplished alumni honored for their outstanding service to the medical profession and to society at-large.

• Read the Rochester Review story about the collaboration between the Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics and the Humanities Center.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.