Eleven Arts and Sciences scholars and teachers won top university awards that recognize and honor outstanding performance and commitment to our land grant mission of scholarship, teaching and service.

Distinguished Scholar Award

Supported by Ohio State’s Office of Research, the Distinguished Scholar Award recognizes exceptional scholarly accomplishments by senior professors.

Frederick Luis Aldama, Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor, English; and Spanish and Portuguese, is an internationally renowned scholar in multiethnic, postcolonial and Latina/o and Chicana/o literary and cultural studies. Aldama’s work spans multiple genres and has had a profound influence on what scholars study and how they study it. His writings combine biology, neuroscience, popular cinema, comics and literary criticism with cultural nuance and political sensitivity. Aldama founded and directs the Latino and Latin American Studies Space for Enrichment and Research (LASER), an Ohio State-based collaborative sponsoring programming for faculty, staff and students and providing an innovative student mentoring program.

Lung-fei Lee, University Chair in Macroeconomics-Monetary Economics, economics, has made important contributions to theory and practice in microeconometrics, specifically statistical analysis of economic data on the behavior of individuals, households and organizations. His models of limited dependent variables to deal with statistical issues that arise in analysis of micro data have made him a leader in developing estimation theory for models with cross-sectional dependence. These models have been widely applied to the analysis of networks, social interactions and spatial interactions.

Samir D. Mathur, professor, physics, is a world leader in the application of string theory to the study of the quantum physics of black holes. He is the originator of the “Mathur Conjecture,” put forth in 2002, as a resolution to a famous information paradox involving black holes that pits the classical notion that information carried into a black hole by in-falling matter and energy is forever lost against principles of quantum mechanics that say the information must be retained. Mathur’s Conjecture is the first concrete example of how the effects of quantum gravity could extend out to the horizon of the black hole.

The President and Provost's Award for Distinguished Faculty Service

Honors faculty whose service has been both extensive and made a long-lasting positive impact on the quality of the university and beyond.

Terry L. Gustafson, professor, chemistry and biochemistry, has been working on behalf of the university since he arrived on campus in 1989. Gustafson reached out to students almost immediately and began ongoing mentoring and advising relationships. He has advised 12 organizations, including Sphinx, the senior class honorary; served on the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum Faculty Advisory Committee since 2002, is in his 10th year on the Arts and Sciences Honors Committee and has served on the Study Abroad Committee and the Scholars Advisory Board. He has played a critical role in developing multiple first-year initiatives and is a member of a team that speaks to new students and their families at orientation. “Terry has an extraordinary record of service to his department, the College of Arts and Sciences, the university and his profession,” a nominator wrote.

Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching

Recognizes superior teaching by faculty, nominated by students, alumni and colleagues. Our distinguished teaching award winners have multiple pages of amazing testimony from their nominators. Those cited below sum it up.

Steven James Joyce, associate professor, Germanic Languages and Literatures, OSU Mansfield: students note he “goes out of his way to ensure the success of his students.” One said, “His passion (for literature) is contagious…and I caught it!”

Trevon D. Logan, associate professor, economics: One student summed it up, “He completly changed my Ohio State experience…I have to thank him for rediscovering my intellectual curiosity.”

Warren Benson “Ben” McCorkle Jr., professor, English, OSU Marion: One enthusiastically echoes the thoughts of her fellow students, “I could write pages and pages of why he SO deserves this award; I’ve never met a student who didn’t love him.”

Jennifer E. Schlueter, assistant professor, theatre: She received glowing praise from everyone; one put it best, ”She is…the perfect combination of organized and efficient…approachable and encouraging.”

Todd Alan Thompson, associate professor, astronomy: Every student cited his amazing teaching skills. One delivered the ultimate tribute, ”I still talk about his class to this day, more than two years after I took it.”

Provost’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Lecturer

Recognizes lecturers, senior lecturers, or other auxiliary faculty members for teaching excellence. Nominated by students, faculty, and alumni, who wrote vigorous letters of support; chosen by a committee of students, other award winning faculty and alumni.

Lisa Cravens-Brown, psychology, is able to connect with honors pupils and the unmotivated alike and get them engaged by selecting course materials that are highly relevant to their daily lives. In 2012, Cravens-Brown was named to Princeton Review’s list of the 300 best professors in the United States — most of whom were distinguished tenure-track professors. According to one nominator, Lisa Cravens-Brown should be known as the “student whisperer.”

Anthony Shoup, physics, OSU Lima, is considered “indispensible” by one nominator. With many first-generation college students in his classes, Shoup relates his own story of being the first in his family to graduate. Wanting to give students a full astronomy experience at Lima, he worked to get a telescope donated to the campus; then he built the observation dome, installed the telescope and wrote the control software, which allows students to operate the device and take pictures from their home computers.