Awards and Recognition

Rachel Hardeman, School of Public Health professor and founding director of the University of Minnesota’s landmark Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity (CARHE), was named a member of the 2024 TIME100. This year’s compilation recognized the world’s 100 most influential personalities and leaders throughout many cross-sections of society, from discovery and research to politics, policy, arts and athletics.

Hardeman's antiracism and community-engaged research has always been grounded in Minnesotan communities. Hardeman was born and raised in Minneapolis, earned her PhD at the U of M School of Public Health, and is a faculty member at the School of Public Health. Hardeman’s current work is anchored in CARHE, which she founded in 2021, the year after she was named the first Blue Cross Endowed Professor of Health and Racial Equity. The intrepid spirit to openly consider how racism impacts health outcomes, particularly for the maternal health of Black Americans, continues to guide CARHE’s work. Its work is made possible by an aspirational philanthropic gift from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.

Lamar Peterson, an associate professor of art in the College of Liberal Arts on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus, has been awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Peterson’s selection comes after a rigorous application and peer review process, one in which just 188 individuals were selected from almost 3,000 applicants based on outstanding achievement and exceptional promise.

Peterson was born in Florida and is based in Minnesota. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in drawing and painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. Inspired by elementary school bulletin boards, educational activity books, and crepe paper streamers, Peterson’s graphic portraits depict contemporary African American men and women in quasi-abstract and absurd settings. He evokes issues of race, community, and social and economic upheaval through a candy-coated filter with a darkly comedic effect. 

A new, federally-funded research center collaboration between teams at the U of M and New York University is investigating the use of causal modeling to identify the factors that lead to child maltreatment and its consequences—such as depression, suicidal behavior, or posttraumatic stress—and to identify targeted interventions that can reduce children’s risk for these devastating outcomes.

The Center on Causal Data Science for Child and Adolescent Maltreatment Prevention (CHAMP Center) has received a five-year, $7.6 million P50 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health. The team at University of Minnesota’s Institute for Health Informatics, led by Sisi Ma and Constantin Aliferis, will apply advanced data science methods to build and test models revealing the children who are most at risk and the causes that most contribute to those risks.

College of Education and Human Development professor David Weerts has been appointed associate vice provost for public engagement
for the University of Minnesota System, where he will play a key role in advancing public engagement as a strategy to enhance the quality and impact of teaching, research, and outreach across the University system.

In addition to his faculty appointment, Weerts most recently served as faculty director for academic programs for the Office for Public Engagement (OPE), a role in which he oversaw professional development opportunities for faculty, as well as OPE's Summer Institute, Engaged Scholar workshops, public engagement promotion and tenure offerings, and the University’s Review Committee on Community-Engaged Scholarship. He is also director of the nationally recognized Engagement Academy for University Leaders, an executive training program for higher education leaders.

Kirsten Delegard is interviewed in Finance & Commerce about the Mapping Prejudice project, which uses maps and property records to examine the Twin Cities’ racist past; Carol Cardona is quoted in the New York Times story “Lasers, Inflatable Dancers and the Fight to Fend Off Avian Flu;” Tom Hoverstad is quoted in the Mankato Free Press about spring planting considerations; Sujaya Rao is interviewed in Racket’s “Minnesotans Should Be Eating Bugs;” Heidi Roop is interviewed in a CBS Minnesota story about what the average person can do to help reduce climate change; Manka Nkimbeng is quoted in the Sahan Journal about dementia in Minnesota’s African immigrant communities; Roger Ruan is quoted in a Minnpost story about extracting nutrients from manure produced on Minnesota farms for use in biofuels; Katie Pekel is quoted in an MPR News story about student mental health needs and overwhelmed principals in Minnesota schools; Peter Neff is interviewed in a Science Magazine story about his mission to drill Antarctic ice cores that could reveal the future of sea level rise; Mochen Yang is interviewed in the Star Tribune story “When markets turn down, robots are better at picking stocks than humans.” 

The Research and Innovation Office and the Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation Center have announced the 2024 recipients of the Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Seed Grants. Six projects received a total of $795,392 in funding over the next two years. Among the awardees, five colleges/units and two campuses (Twin Cities and Duluth) were represented. Projects focus on using biotechnology and biomanufacturing to develop solutions related to environmental sustainability and climate change as well as using Minnesota-based resources to expand a regional bio-economy. 

The Aging Life Care Association has named Joseph Gaugler as the 2024 Distinguished Ambassador in Aging Award recipient. The award is given to an individual or organization that has raised national awareness of a critical issue or need in aging. Gaugler is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and the Robert L. Kane Endowed Chair in Long-Term Care & Aging at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, as well as the director of the Center for Healthy Aging and Innovation. His research examines the sources and effectiveness of long-term care for persons with Alzheimer’s disease and other chronic conditions.

Kate Schaefers and Rajean Moone spoke with MPR News about how the tight labor market is impacting ageism in the workplace; Kristen Mark is quoted in a CNN story about the rise in permanent contraception for people 30 and under after the Dobbs decision; Elaine Evans is quoted in the MPR News story “Study finds Minnesota state bee in tough shape;” Larry Jacobs is quoted in the Minnesota Reformer about how the Israel-Hamas war has set progressive and young voters on collision course with White House; Karen Ashe is quoted in the Minnesota Daily story “UMN’s Alzheimer’s Ashe Research Lab post-fabrication claims;” Matthew Anderson is quoted in the Star Tribune about how to save money at the pharmacy counter; George Veletsianos writes in The Conversation about five questions schools and universities should ask before they purchase AI tech products; David Schultz is quoted in the Sahan Journal about the first defendants in the Feeding Our Future food-aid fraud going on trial; Jenny Liu is quoted in the New York Times story "Straws That Don’t Cause Wrinkles. Wait — Straws Cause Wrinkles?;" Valérie Bélair-Gagnon is quoted in the Star Tribune story "Major in English, minor in social media? Colleges add more formal studies of online social networks." 

The recipients of the 2024 Distinguished McKnight University Professor Award have been announced. The Distinguished McKnight University Professorship program recognizes outstanding faculty members who have recently achieved full professor status. The award is designed to advance the careers of mid-career faculty members who are making significant contributions to their departments and to their scholarly fields. 

• David R Boulware, Medicine (Infectious Diseases and International Medicine), Medical School
• Peter Bruggeman, Mechanical Engineering, College of Science and Engineering
• Paul Dauenhauer, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, College of Science and Engineering
• Joshua M. Feinberg, Earth and Environmental Sciences, College of Science and Engineering
• Jasmine Foo, Mathematics, College of Science and Engineering
• Jason D. Hill, Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences
• R. Stephanie Huang, Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy
• Ronald R. Krebs, Political Science, College of Liberal Arts
• Nathan Kuncel, Psychology, College of Liberal Arts
• Chad L. Myers, Computer Science and Engineering, College of Science and Engineering
• Eric W. Seabloom, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences
• Changquan Calvin Sun, Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy

School of Public Health (SPH) Assistant Professor Dana Carroll has received the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco’s (SRNT) Jarvik-Russell New Investigator Award, which recognizes early-career scientists and SRNT members who have made extraordinary contributions to the field of nicotine and tobacco research. Carroll’s research focuses on addressing commercial tobacco use disparities, particularly among American Indian populations. Carroll has received widespread recognition for her research efforts, including a White House brief in 2023 highlighting her contributions to co-creating smoking cessation resources for American Indian persons as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Cancer Moonshot Agenda to end cancer.