Professor Lee Huntsman, director of the Center for Bioengineering and
associate dean of scientific affairs in the School of Medicine, has been
serving as acting provost since Aug. 1. David B. Thorud, dean of the
College of Forest Resources, who had served as acting provost since 1994,
returned to head his college. The provost is the University's
second-in-command, its chief academic and budget officer. The UW has been
unsuccessful in finding a new provost since Wayne Clough left in 1994. During
the latest search, at least two top prospects withdrew to take university
presidencies elsewhere. This summer President Richard L. McCormick as
appointed a 17-member committee, headed by Public Affairs Professor and Dean
Emeritus Hubert Locke, to begin a new search.
Physiology and Biophysics Professor Bertil Hille received the 1996
Horwitz Prize from Columbia University Oct. 16 for his work on ion
channels--molecular pathways that allow electric signals to move muscles and
signal the brain. University of Pennsylvania Professor Clay Armstrong shared
the honor with Hille. Since it was first presented in 1967, the Horwitz Prize
has gone to 55 recipients--31 of them have gone on to win a Nobel Prize for
their work in medicine or chemistry.
History Professor Richard White received a 1996 Governor's Writers Award
for his new book, The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia
River. Among White's other honors is a 1995 "genius" award from the John D.
and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. His other books include "It's Your
Misfortune and None of My Own": A History of the American West, and The
Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region
1650-1815.
The UW received more grant and contract award dollars during fiscal year
1996 than it has ever received--$482 million, an increase of $5 million over
last year. This money supports research and training programs that provide
salaries to more than 5,600 full-time employees and create opportunities for
students to work with faculty. "Essentially all of these awards result from
peer review of competing proposals," notes Vice Provost for Research Alvin
Kwiram, adding that it is evidence of the high caliber of the UW faculty.
Since 1969 the UW has ranked among the top five institutions in the U.S.
receiving the most federal awards.
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