Last modified: Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Six honored with IU Bloomington Outstanding Junior Faculty Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 25, 2008
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Recipients of the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award at Indiana University Bloomington this year are Candy Gunther Brown in the Department of Religious Studies, Tony H. Grubesic in Department of Geography, Scott Michaels in the Department of Biology, Ethan Michelson in the Departments of Sociology and East Asian Languages and Cultures, Sima Setayeshgar in the Department of Physics, and Chen Yu in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
The award, presented annually by the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculties, as well as the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, enables faculty to enhance their research and recognizes junior faculty members who have devoted considerable time to the teaching, research and service missions of IU. Each of the recipients has received $14,500 to support his or her research and creative activity.
Brown joined IU in 2006 after one year as an assistant professor of history at Vanderbilt and five years as an assistant professor in American studies at St. Louis University. She received her doctorate in the history of American civilization from Harvard University in 2000. Her book, The Word in the World: Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading in America, 1789-1880 (2004), is a cultural history of evangelical print culture. Brown's current book project, Miracle Cures? Divine Healing and Deliverance in America, traces the development of Pentecostal and charismatic healing practices in the U.S., emphasizing links between American practices and patterns of globalization. For more information on Brown, visit https://www.indiana.edu/~relstud/faculty/GuntherBrown.shtml.
Grubesic joined IU in 2006 after holding an adjunct research fellow position at the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis at The Ohio State University and also an assistant professor position in the Department of Geography at the University of Cincinnati. He received his doctorate in geography from The Ohio State University in 2001. His research seeks to develop a methodological framework for evaluating the collateral consequences of sex offender registration, restriction zones and housing availability using a combination of advanced statistical approaches and geographic information systems (GIS) technologies. For more information on Grubesic, visit https://www.indiana.edu/~geog/dir/Grubesic2.htm.
Michaels joined IU in 2003 after working as at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he completed his doctorate in biochemistry in 1999. He now is an assistant professor and the director of the Yeast-Two-Hybrid Facility in the Department of Biology. His current research is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate flowering time in plants. His research has the potential to increase yields in crops where the vegetative portions of the plant are harvested, with possibly a large impact on biofuels. For more information on Michaels, visit https://www.bio.indiana.edu/facultyresearch/faculty/Michaels.html.
Michelson joined IU in 2003 after completing his doctorate in sociology at the University of Chicago. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. He has two ongoing research projects related to China's evolving legal system: examining the case of Chinese lawyers to assess the limits and possibilities of popular justice and political reform in China; and studying recent national policy efforts to quell popular discontent and contention among China's 800 million rural citizens. A planned follow-up survey will allow him to assess the impact of China's "harmonious society" policies aimed at alleviating suffering caused by, among other things, agricultural taxation, school tuition and family planning. How well these reforms work will help determine the political stability of China and the quality of life for the majority of its population. For more information on Michelson, visit https://www.indiana.edu/~emsoc.
Setayeshgar joined IU in 2003 as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics after completing her doctorate from the California Institute of Technology. Her research investigates the design of biochemical signaling networks from the standpoint of information transmission. The model system explored is the bacterial chemotaxis network, which governs the motion of bacterial cells toward favorable chemical gradients and away from harmful ones. Potential applications involve biomolecular engineering of synthetic networks with specified properties. For more information on Setayeshgar, visit https://www.iub.edu/~iubphys/research/faculty/Setayeshgar.shtml.
Yu joined IU in 2004 after earning a doctorate in computer science from University of Rochester. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, a core faculty member in the cognitive science program, and an adjunct faculty member in computer science. Yu founded and leads the Computational Cognition and Learning Lab at IU where human development and learning through both behavioral studies and computational modeling is investigated. His research focuses on how language is grounded in sensorimotor experience and how language development depends on complex interactions among brain, body and environment. For more information on Yu, visit Computational Cognition and Learning Lab at https://www.indiana.edu/~dll/.
Award Information
Monetary support for this award is provided through the combination of three different grants totaling approximately $14,500: a summer faculty fellowship of up to $8,000; a faculty grant-in-aid of research in the amount of $2,500 for the academic year; and a $4,000 grant-in-aid or released-time award.
The awards are designed to assist untenured, tenure-track faculty to enhance their research programs prior to tenure. Awards are given to junior faculty members who show promise of achieving great distinction as scholars or artists.
Candidates should have been at Indiana University for at least one academic year and demonstrated commitment to all three areas of teaching, research and service, and show evidence of this in the materials submitted.
For more information on the award, see https://www.iub.edu/~deanfac/download/download.html#awnom or e-mail dof@indiana.edu.
