College of Science and Letters Dean's Excellence Awards
IIT Today December 14, 2006

Dean McMorris honored five faculty and staff with 2006 CSL Dean's Excellence Awards for outstanding achievements during a luncheon on Friday, November 17. "With 88 faculty, 22 staff, six diverse departments, more teaching hours than any other IIT college, and about $12 million in research funding, it was a difficult choice," said McMorris. "These individuals particularly stood out this year."

Awards for excellence in teaching went to Scott Peters, senior lecturer and student advisor for Social Sciences, and Xiaofan Li, associate professor in Applied Mathematics. Peters "teaches an astonishing load," because he wants to serve students, said Dean McMorris, and was instrumental in outreach to China for the highly successful Master of Public Administration (MPA) program for Chinese officials. As one of the China program students said, "He's such a wonderful teacher - every class is like a great MPA story. Thank you for making the right choice," for this award.

Li brings the freshness of current applied mathematics to the classroom, said McMorris, with a focus on computational fluid dynamics. Routinely winning top student evaluations, Li also inspired one of the department's top students to write, "Without question, Dr. Li has been a guiding and driving force for me."

Computer Science Professor Xian-He Sun won one of the two awards for excellence in research. "He has been an unbelievably prolific scholar all through his career, and last year was no exception," said McMorris. Sun's scholarly content is matched only by his skill at securing grants, including, most recently, a $650,000 National Science Foundation grant for his research in "push architecture."

"Truly marvelous interdisciplinary links" characterize the research of Joseph Orgel, also honored for excellence in research. Orgel is an Assistant Professor of Biology and Associate Director of the Biophysics Collaborative Access Team (BioCAT), an x-ray facility located at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. McMorris particularly singled out Orgel's recent work on the molecular structure of collagen.

After reminding those present about the important role that staff members play in keeping IIT running, McMorris presented the Dean's Award for Staff Excellence to Zabel Panosyan, Chemistry Laboratory Manager. This past year, she kept the lab going even during the extensive renovation of Wishnick. Previously, she won the IIT Excellence in Service Award.