The UI will honor alumni, faculty members and students at the annual International Achievement Awards banquet April 12 at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center. The International Achievement Award recipients:
Barry Pittendrigh
Barry Pittendrigh, the C.W. Kearns, C.L. Metcalf and W.P. Flint Endowed Chair in Insect Toxicology in the department of entomology at Illinois, will receive the Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement. This award is presented to a UI faculty member for exemplary accomplishments in teaching, research and public service in the international arena. Pittendrigh is being honored for his efforts in putting educational solutions into the hands of local farmers in West Africa, in particular cowpea pest control strategies he developed through a USAID-funded project. One program, called Scientific Animations Without Borders, creates content for educating people on topics that can improve the quality of their lives through the use of animations with narrations provided in local languages.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati, a native of Indonesia and one of three managing directors of the World Bank Group, will receive the Madhuri and Jagdish Sheth International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement. She also will give the annual Alumni Lecture at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center at 9 a.m. April 12.
Established in 2000, this award is presented each year to one of the university’s distinguished international alumni who has helped to better their own nation or the world through their contributions to government, humanity, science, art or human welfare.
Before taking her position with the World Bank Group, Indrawati was Minister of Finance of Indonesia from 2005 to 2010. Indrawati managed to help guide Southeast Asia’s largest economy through an economic crisis and into a period of strong growth. While many other countries battled recession, the Indonesian economy recorded a 4.5 percent growth rate in 2009, among the highest in the world. Indrawati received her master’s and Ph.D. in economics from the UI.
Benjamin Barnes will receive the Charles C. Stewart International Young Humanitarian Award. During his time at Illinois, he studied mechanical engineering and volunteered with Engineers Without Borders, with his first project taking him to India where his team designed a low-tech bio-fuel electricity system. In 2005, he co-founded the Adu Achi Water Project in Southeast Nigeria, where he and his team helped to bring safe water to the people of rural Nigeria. He continues to work with the Adu Achi Water Project in his free time. Barnes graduated in 2009 and now works for the Construction Engineering Research Lab (CERL).
Aaron Shultz, a Ph.D. student at Illinois, will receive the Illinois International Graduate Achievement Award. Shultz is researching the effects of global climate change on coastal ecosystems. Dana Fager will receive the Illinois International Undergraduate Achievement Award. Fager has devoted significant time and effort on the Illinois campus to increasing awareness about the importance of international education and global consciousness.
