All faculty in a modern research university are jugglers. They actively pursue their scholarly passions; they instruct in formal classes; they mentor students outside of class; they participate in professional associations nationally and internationally; they serve on unit and university faculty committees as part of the shared governance of their universities.
In all this busyness, it’s appropriate to stop periodically to honor those among us that fulfill one or more of these responsibilities at a notable level of excellence. They then become exemplars for our own aspirations. We will do so next week.
2022 Innovation in Teaching Award
The Innovation in Teaching Award, launched in Fall 2018, recognizes an individual faculty member, a faculty team, or a whole department/unit that has exhibited exceptional creativity and innovative approaches to promote student-centered learning. This annual award is based on the extent of innovation, as well as evidence of impact on students, colleagues, and the potential for wider adoption. The award is open to all full-time faculty in any discipline who teach undergraduate and/or graduate students on the Main Campus at Georgetown University. The Provost Innovation in Teaching Award is supported by the Bill (B’92) and Karen Sonneborn Innovation Fund, generosity from two donors who care deeply about the educational excellence of Georgetown faculty.
Professor Jason Brennan, the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, Public Policy at the McDonough School of Business, will receive the 2022 Innovation in Teaching Award. Professor Brennan is a principal force behind the Ethics Project. From its start in 2012 and propelled forward in 2021 by a grant from the Templeton Foundation, the Project has given undergraduate and graduate students a rich experience-based learning. The courses ask the students to “think of something good to do, and then do it.” The course offers seed resources to add to the students’ time and effort. Over the years, aid to disaster victims has been catalyzed; “unsung heroes” of organizations throughout the country have been recognized; startups doing social good have been formed. In true Georgetown fashion, Professor Brennan has endeavored to spread the idea to others, and has published a peer reviewed article disseminating the design of the work.
2022 Career Research Achievement Award
The Career Research Achievement Award honors the contributions of a scholar to their field of research over the course of a career. The award acknowledges the standing the faculty member has acquired in their scholarly discipline, as reflected in the quality and volume of research output, the recognition and affirmation by members of the profession, and contributions to the discipline. Awardees should be at the stage in their career appropriate for an assessment of long-term contributions and influence.
Professor Der-Chen Chang, the McDevitt Chair in Mathematics and Statistics, and in Computer Science, will receive this year’s Career Research Achievement Award. Professor Chang is one of Georgetown’s most prominent scholars. As the nomination noted, for more than three decades, Der-Chen has been one of the major pillars of advances in the fields of Several Complex Variables, Harmonics Analysis and CR Geometry, which are among the central research fields in pure and applied mathematics. His influential and innovative work evinces remarkable strength in both geometric analysis and applied mathematics. He has produced over 250 publications, co-authored 7 books with the 8th in preprint, 7 additional monographs, and presented well nearly 350 invited presentations across the globe. This is an average of roughly 8 publications and 10 presentations per year. In short, on average, he has published a paper and presented a talk roughly every 6 weeks over his highly-productive 35 years! These publication and presentation rates ignore the reality that he likewise authored a book roughly every 4 years. He has garnered continuous funding to support his research since 1990. His work is highly cited and has shaped the careers of many younger mathematicians.
2022 Distinguished Achievement in Research Award
The Distinguished Achievement in Research Award recognizes a recent outstanding accomplishment in scholarship and research, such as the receipt of a prestigious book prize, a prominent award from one’s peers, or a major grant. This award is open to both junior and senior faculty who have achieved such notoriety within the last five years.
Professor Diana Kim, assistant professor in the School of Foreign Service, teaches international politics and participates in the undergraduate and graduate programs in Asian Studies. She garnered the award for her book, Empires of Vice: The Rise of Opium Prohibition across Southeast Asia (Princeton University Press, 2020). The book is a comparative history of opium regulation and prohibition across two empires, British Burma and Malaya, and French Indochina. It aims to explain why British and French officials sought to prohibit opium, given how much these empires benefited from it. Employing archival research, it offers a political, legal, economic, and bureaucratic history that emphasizes the role of lower-level official actors who understood the contradictions of opium policy, yet feared its destabilizing impacts for colonial power. The book bridges multiple disciplines with a rigorous multifaceted analysis.
We congratulate these three treasured colleagues.
On Monday, December 12, 2022, we will honor them from 4-5:30PM in the Bioethics Library. Please join us in celebrating their accomplishments.