March 2005 -

Milestones

APPOINTMENTS

Former Gov. Gary Locke named Stanley Barer, ’61, ’63, to replace former Regent Gerald Grinstein on Nov. 23. Barer earned his B.A. at the UW and went on to graduate from the UW School of Law. He was a cofounder at the Seattle law firm Garvey Schubert Barer, specializing in governmental relations and international trade. Barer also is part owner of the steamship service company Saltchuk Resources. Barer was named distinguished alumnus of the year in 2000 by the Department of Economics and the law school.

Denise Dee Denton, former dean of the UW College of Engineering, has been appointed chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Coming to UW in 1996 Denton became the first female to lead an engineering college at a major U.S. research university. During her tenure Denton worked to promote programs making engineering accessible to all segments of the population and received a number of national awards. Electrical Engineering Professor Mani Soma was named acting dean in January while a national search is conducted for Denton’s permanent replacement. Soma has been with the UW since 1982 and has already held a number of high level positions within the college of engineering including acting chairman and associate dean.

Patricia Spakes, provost and vice president at Shippenburg University of Pennsylvania, will become chancellor of UW Tacoma in April. She replaces Vicky Carwein, who left on April 15, 2004 to become president of Westfield State College in Massachusetts. Serving as interim UWT chancellor was Vice Provost Steven Olswang, ’77. Earning her bachelor’s in sociology and English at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., Spakes went on to earn a master’s in social work from the University of South Carolina and a doctorate in social welfare from the University of Wisconsin. Spakes’ earlier positions included vice president of academic affairs at Fitchberg State College in Massachusetts and vice provost of academic affairs at Arizona State University West.

HONORS

James R. Karr, UW professor of fisheries and aquatic sciences, received the Carl R. Sullivan Fishery Conservation Award from the American Fisheries Society last December. Karr, who has assisted in defining the characteristics of healthy waterways and has developed a system for documenting aquatic well being, received the award for improving the management of aquatic ecosystems.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science recognized two former UW professors along with 306 other scientists as fellows last November. Norbert Untersteiner had worked as a research associate professor in meteorology and coordinator of the Polar Research Group at the UW since 1962 and gained emeritus status in 1997. He received the fellowship for his distinguished contributions to the organization’s Artic Division in atmosphere sciences and arctic research. Weston Borden has been a faculty member in UW chemistry since 1972 and received his fellowship for fundamental discoveries about the structures and energies of organic reactions.

UW ALUM IN THE NEWS

The publishing world is buzzing over author Marilynne Robinson, ’68, ’77, and her second novel, Gilead, which got front-page coverage in the New York Times Book Review. Set in small town Gilead, Iowa, in 1956, the novel is in the form of a letter written by the narrator, a 76-year-old pastor facing death. Robinson was a 1988 National Book Award finalist for Mother Country and is also the author of Housekeeping. Between books she writes essays and book reviews for Harper’s, Paris Review and the New York Times Book Review, and teaches at colleges and universities such as Amherst College, the University of Massachusetts and the University of Kent in England.