As I’ve often said, one of our university’s great strengths is our academic and scholarly excellence, driven by faculty members who are at the leading edge of their disciplines. Thanks to our faculty, students at U of I find an academic experience that helps them grow as thinkers and leaders, and prepares them for life and careers. They have access to role models who are more than just researchers, more than just teachers – they are mentors. Recently, the National Science Foundation made funding awards in its Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program. CAREER awards, highly coveted, are offered on the basis of excellence in teaching and in the integration of scholarship and education. That is, the National Science Foundation issues funding based not just on the possibilities for the area of research, but for how well faculty members bring students into the work. Two University of Idaho faculty members earned CAREER awards this year – Elizabeth Cassel, assistant professor of geological sciences, and Michael Strickland, assistant professor in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Assistant Professor Cassel earned a $729,932, five-year grant to study the history of the Rocky Mountains and Northern Basin and Range, from western Idaho to eastern Montana and Wyoming. Her work will try to more accurately gauge elevation and terrain changes in this vast region over the past 50 million years to understand the processes that formed the basin and range – and still cause earthquakes in eastern Idaho today. In addition to two new graduate students, she’ll recruit low-income and underrepresented high school students through our STEM Access and Upward Bound programs to handle and analyze rocks collected. These students will have a fascinating entryway into the topography of our world and the excitement of hands-on STEM research. Assistant Professor Strickland’s $651,698, five-year award supports research connected to soil, including antibiotic resistance across different soil types and antibiotic effects in food webs. Graduate students will find opportunities in his program. He will also bring the program to Idaho middle and high schools. The health and productivity of our soil is critically important for agriculture and our food supply. Connecting students to this work will get them excited about agricultural research, and they’ll be able to grasp and contribute to key questions. Cassel and Strickland represent something important about our public research university: Research and teaching are intertwined. Involvement in research, scholarship or creative projects is one of the high-impact experiences that makes a difference for students as they progress through to graduation. Most undergraduates gain that experience at U of I, and it’s a feature of graduate student life. I appreciate that our CAREER award winners are also extending that participation in a different capacity to even younger students. Did you know that U of I actually has eight recipients of active CAREER Awards? That distinguished cohort includes Cassel and Strickland, as well as 2018 recipients Eric Mittelstaedt, assistant professor of geology; and Christine Parent, assistant professor of biology. Our 2016 winners include Tara Hudiburg, assistant professor in the department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences; Craig McGowan, associate professor of biology; and Vishal Saxena, associate professor in the College of Engineering and the Micron Endowed Professor in Electronics. In 2013 David Tank, the Stillinger Herbarium director in our Department of Biological Sciences, earned a CAREER award. The active awards total nearly $3.9 million in federal funding brought to U of I. But the real impact of these awards goes beyond money. I congratulate our CAREER award winners on their well-deserved recognition and funding. I’m eager to see the discovery and innovation we’ll unlock for the state, and the teaching and learning that will shape the lives and careers of students. | | Go Vandals! Chuck Staben President | | | National Law Firm Rooted in Idaho Gives Back In gratitude and recognition of the education they received at the University of Idaho College of Law, the shareholders of the national law firm James, Vernon and Weeks P.A., recently established an endowment that will provide an annual scholarship award for law students. Originating out of Coeur d’Alene, the firm is focused on bringing justice to child victims, those injured by drugs and medical devices, and other serious cases involving physical or financial injury. The fund will allow the College of Law to provide scholarships to students who demonstrate a commitment to help individuals or small businesses access the courts and achieve civil justice. If you would like to learn more about giving to the College of Law, contact Michele Bartlett at 208-364-4044 or bartlett@uidaho.edu. | | U of I Medical Students Receive Scholarship Support More Idaho medical students with financial need will receive scholarship support because of a recent gift from the Durward and Susan Huckabay Foundation. The $1.5 million gift to the Idaho WWAMI Medical Education Program at the University of Idaho will support medical students in completing their studies and graduating with less debt. John Huckabay of Coeur d’Alene, trustee of the Durward and Susan Huckabay Foundation, established the scholarship in honor of his grandfather, Durward A. Huckabay M.D., who struggled to afford medical school in the 1920s while also supporting his wife and four siblings. “The D.A. Huckabay M.D. WWAMI Endowment is the first of its kind for the program,” said Jeff Seegmiller, regional dean and Idaho WWAMI director at U of I. “It’s the largest gift directly benefitting our medical students.” The Idaho WWAMI Medical Education Program Scholarship Committee will select WWAMI-eligible students with financial need for the scholarship. The endowment will have funds available in the 2020-21 school year in the form of scholarship support for Idaho WWAMI students. “We’re deeply grateful for the Durward and Susan Huckabay Foundation’s generosity,” said U of I President Chuck Staben. “The endowment is an investment in the careers of medical professionals for Idaho, in our university’s great public medical education program, and in the health and well-being of our state.” | | U of I Student Selected for a Fulbright Award to Denmark Taylor Azizeh, a senior majoring in environmental science and wildlife resources, has been selected for a Fulbright Study/Research Award to Denmark. During the grant period, Azizeh will take master’s courses at the Arctic Research Center in Denmark and conduct Arctic research and fieldwork at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources in Nuuk, Greenland. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program operates in over 160 countries worldwide. As a grantee, Taylor joins the ranks of distinguished participants in the program who have included 59 Nobel Laureates, 82 Pulitzer Prize winners, 72 MacArthur Fellows, 16 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients and thousands of leaders across the private, public and non-profit sectors. | | | | |