Points of Distinction

Researchers in the Life Span Institute's Beach Center on Disability, the School of Education's Department of Special Education, and other units have received the largest grant in KU's history, $24.5 million, to develop a national center to assist schools in implementing KU’s successful model for educating general and special education students together and improving schoolwide academic outcomes.

The grant from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs will establish the School-wide Integrated Framework for Transformation Center (SWIFT). It will be directed by Wayne Sailor, associate director of the Beach Center.

The SWIFT center will provide intensive, innovative, on-site technical assistance and will assist state education agencies to implement school reform. A national communication system will include a new generation website, an interactive e–learning knowledge bank, and a national family alliance.

Physics professor Sergei Shandarin received a $300,000 from the John Templeton Foundation to support his research into cosmic complexity, specifically life and intelligence beyond the solar system.

It is part of a broader $5.6 million award to the University of Chicago for the project New Frontiers in Astronomy & Cosmology. The project involves 20 scientists from the United States and other countries, as well as about high school and college student essayists worldwide.

Shandarin's co-investigator is Rien van de Weygaert, a professor of astronomy at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. They will explore the origin of the complexity in the universe by quantifying the structural growth of the universe itself.

Emily Scott, associate professor in the School of Pharmacy’s Department of Medicinal Chemistry, has earned the North American New Investigator Award from the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics.

Scott’s research focuses on obtaining crystal structures of human cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes that exist in cellular membranes and play an important role in drug metabolism and steroid generation, especially the development of anticancer compounds for lung and prostate cancer.

Joe Lutkenhaus, a Distinguished Professor of microbiology, molecular genetics and immunology at the KU Medical Center, has been named one of three winners of the 2012 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize by Columbia University in recognition of his work to understand the intricate, dynamic, and three-dimensional organization of bacterial cells.

Lutkenhaus shares the prize with Richard M. Losick of Harvard University and Lucy Shapiro of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Established in 1967, the Horwitz Prize is Columbia University's top honor for achievement in biological and biochemistry research, and is widely considered a precursor to the Nobel Prize.

Dave Tell, associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies, received the Karl R. Wallace Memorial Award for research from the National Communication Association.

Tell’s research uses the traditions of rhetoric to better understand American culture. In November, the Pennsylvania State University Press will publish his first book, “Confessional Crises and Cultural Politics in Twentieth-Century America.” It argues that debates over the meaning of confession have influenced six perennial issues in American cultural politics — sexuality, class, race, violence, religion, and democracy.

Tell came to KU in 2007.

Chris Elles, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, received the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation for his research on chemical reactions initiated by light

Elles received a five-year, $650,000 CAREER Award for research that will focus on reactions involving technologically important molecular switches activated by light. Elles joined the KU faculty in 2009.

Two KU professors have been named fellows by the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific association.

Named were Joseph Heppert, professor of chemistry in the College of Liberay Arts & Sciences; and Jeff Aube, University Distinguished Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the School of Pharmacy.

The selection of fellows is based on such achievements as outstanding and creative scientific research, superior achievements in the teaching of chemistry, managerial excellence, and volunteer service.

KU faculty ranked second nationwide in 2011-12 for the number of prestigious Fulbright awards they received, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Nine KU faculty members received the awards, which enable recipients to teach and conduct research overseas for a year.