Illinois State University Honors Outstanding Teachers and Researchers

Illinois State University will honor 14 faculty members for teaching and research during the Founders Day Convocation at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 14, in the Bone Student Center Braden Auditorium.

David Williams of the Biological Sciences department and Saad El-Zanati of the Mathematics department are the 2008 Outstanding University Researchers.  The Outstanding University Research Award goes to faculty whose research has been acknowledged by their peers in the U.S. and internationally.

Gregory Ferrence of the Chemistry department and Stephen Hunt of the School of Communication are the 2007-08 Outstanding University Teachers.  Laura Trendle Polus of the School of Communication is the Category 2 Outstanding University Teacher, a classification for non-tenured faculty.  The Outstanding University Teacher Award is given to faculty whose teaching accomplishments are unusually significant and meritorious among their colleagues.

Research Initiative Award recipients include Joan Brehm, Sociology-Anthropology; Pruthikrai Mahatanankoon, Information Technology; Julia Stoner, Special Education; Renee Tobin, Psychology; and Corinne Zimmerman, Psychology. The Research Initiative Award is given to faculty members who have initiated a promising research agenda early in their academic careers.

Teaching Initiative Award recipients include Daniella Barroqueiro, Art; Katherine Ellison, English; Rosie Hauck, Accounting, Alycia Hund, Psychology; and Pruthikrai Mahatanankoon, Information Technology. The Teaching Initiative Award is given to faculty members who have shown considerable promise in teaching early in their careers.

El-Zanati came to Illinois State in 1991, after completing his Ph.D. at Auburn University.  He is the co-developer of the Teacher-Scholar Program in Mathematics at Illinois State. This model program has been funded by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Undergraduate Education.  El-Zanati also received funding from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Mathematical Sciences to develop and evaluate a research experiences for undergraduates site at Illinois State University.  In addition to his Outstanding Researcher Award, El-Zanati received the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award, Outstanding Mathematics Teacher of the Academic Year from the Illinois State chapter of the Student Education Association and the Hall Medal presented by the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications.  El-Zanati’s research interests are in the areas of graph theory and combinatorial design theory, and he has over 45 publications with 30 different authors in 12 different journals. Williams came to Illinois State in 1995, after serving as a Peace Corps volunteer teacher in Ghana and completing two postdoctoral fellowships, one as a Fogarty Fellow at the Pasteur Institute in Lille, France, and the other at Cornell University.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Williams’ research is in the areas of parasitology, biochemistry, host-parasite interactions, drug development and mechanisms of drug action. His research program has focused on the important human parasite, Schistosoma mansoni, a causative agent of schistosomiasis (AKA bilharzia). Schistosomiasis is a major tropical disease; more than 200 million people are infected with schistosomes resulting in approximately 280,000 deaths annually. Williams has served on more than 40 graduate committees, chairing nine of them, and was a member of the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program.  He has received funding for his research from the National Institutes of Health, The Wellcome Trust, and the World Health Organization/United Nations Development Program/World Bank/Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. He was selected Outstanding College Researcher in 2006 and received the College Teaching Initiative Award in 1999.           

Ferrence came to Illinois State in 1999, after completing his Ph.D. at Purdue University, postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Alberta and Los Alamos National Laboratory, a visiting assistant professorship at Amherst College.  He has been honored as a visiting fellow at Cambridge University.  Ferrence’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the American Chemical Society and Research Corporation.  He has served as a graduate and undergraduate research advisor to more than 35 students who have conducted research with him in his laboratory, and he has been on the thesis committees for 12 students.  Ferrence is a member of the Ethics Committee for the American Chemical Society and a member of the American Crystallographic Association, National Science Teachers Association and the Council on Undergraduate Research.  He has served as a reviewer for “Chemical Communications,” “Acta Crystallographica” and the “Journal of the American Chemical Society,” among many others.  He co-founded the national consortium STaRBURSTT (Science Teaching and Research Bring Undergraduate Research Strengths Through Technology) and is the director for ISU’s portion of the STEM-ENGINES NSF-URC (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – Engaging the Next Generation in Exploring Science National Science Foundation Undergraduate Research Collaborative) with 12 other colleges and universities.  Ferrence was the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER grant, a select award to teacher-scholars in the early stages of their careers, and was recently awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Discovery Corps Senior Fellowship to provide workshops for chemistry faculty across the U.S.

Hunt came to Illinois State in 1998, after completing his Ph.D. at Southern Illinois University.  He is an associate professor in the School of Communication, co-chair of ISU's American Democracy Project and a Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Political Engagement Scholar.  Hunt has published articles in the areas of instructional communication, persuasion and communication pedagogy, with his major research interests in the areas of pedagogy of political engagement, critical thinking, communication skill assessment and training/mentoring graduate students.  He is the faculty advisor for communication opportunities for majors and minors and for Lambda Pi Eta and serves as a supervisory mentor to graduate student peer mentors.  He is the co-author of “An Ethnographic Study of the Role of Humor in Health Care Transactions” along with many journal chapters and articles. Hunt’s scholarship has been supported by many U.S. Department of Education Teacher Quality Enhancement grants. He is on the editorial boards for “Communication Teacher,” “Communication Monographs” and “Basic Communication Course Annual.”

Trendle Polus came to Illinois State in 2003 as the director of TV-10 News.  She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Illinois State.  Trendle Polus served as a newscast producer for WISN-TV in Milwaukee, Wis., and for WMBD-TV in Peoria.  She also has been a features writer for Illinois Farm Bureau.  Trendle Polus has supervised work resulting in 13 student Silver Dome Awards, six Illinois News Broadcasters Association Awards and numerous scholarships and internships.  She has earned an Associated Press National Board of Directors Award, a Midwest Regional Emmy and Associated Press Best Newscast Awards in Illinois and Wisconsin.  Trendle Polus is a member of the Board of Directors of the Illinois News Broadcasters Association.