Last modified: Tuesday, October 18, 2005
IU College of Arts & Sciences to honor alumnus and professor emeritus
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A humanitarian and a physicist will be honored during the Indiana University College of Arts & Sciences Annual Recognition Banquet on Friday (Oct. 21) in the Tudor Room of the Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. Seventh St. The reception will begin at 6:30 p.m., and dinner will be served at 7 p.m.
The College of Arts & Sciences will present its Distinguished Alumni Award to Jim Morris of Indianapolis and the Distinguished Faculty Award to John Cameron of Bloomington, Ind.
Tickets for the banquet cost $30 and are available by calling 812-855-7934.
Following are individual bios for each award recipient:
Jim Morris
As executive director of the United Nations' World Food Programme, Jim Morris oversees food aid distribution to more than 110 million people each year in about 80 countries. In 2003, he led the biggest food operation in history, providing food to nearly 27 million Iraqis after the United States-led invasion of Iraq.
A native of Terre Haute, Ind., Morris studied political science at IU Bloomington and was active in student government. When Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar was mayor of Indianapolis, Morris served as his chief of staff, developing education and employment programs for the city's youth. In the evenings, he completed an MBA degree at Butler University.
From 1973 to 1989, Morris worked for the Lilly Endowment. He served as president for six years, helping to revitalize downtown Indianapolis, strengthen Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis and involve private companies in public initiatives. In 1989, he became chairman and CEO of IWC Resources Corp. and Indianapolis Water Co. Throughout his career, he has lent his expertise to the American Red Cross, Butler University, the U.S. Olympic Committee, and other not-for-profit organizations.
After years of supporting IU as a professional, alumnus and parent -- Morris and his wife, Jacqueline, an IU alumna, sent three children to IU -- he was elected to two terms on the IU Board of Trustees, beginning in 1996. He served as president of the board in 2001-02 before joining the WFP.
John Cameron
John Cameron could have been the last director of the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility, the person who mothballed the 65-year-old physics research center. Instead, he broadened its mission and put it on solid footing for the future.
Cameron grew up in northeastern Ireland and earned his bachelor's degree in physics from Queen's University in Northern Ireland. He worked at a nuclear facility in England before moving with his wife, Cathleen, to the University of California at Los Angeles for graduate school. He was recruited to direct the IU Cyclotron Facility in 1987, after directing the Nuclear Research Centre at the University of Alberta and working for the French nuclear commission.
With no federal funding available for the cyclotron, Cameron persuaded Indiana legislators to spend $10 million on the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute, a cancer treatment center that treated its first patient in 2004. He also helped secure funding for IUCF's Low Energy Neutron Source, which uses slow-moving neutrons to reveal the internal structure of objects, ranging from molecules to large industrial products. LENS will train scientists to work at the U.S. Energy Department's $2 billion Spallation Neutron Source in Tennessee.
Cameron, emeritus professor of physics, retired as IUCF director in 2004 and from IU last July. He is president of two new companies: PartTec Ltd., which seeks to transform discoveries into commercial products and services, and ProCure, which is exploring the market for proton therapy.
