Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Campus honors international achievements

The U. of I. will honor alumni, faculty members, and students at the annual International Achievement Awards banquet on April 11 at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center.

The award recipients:

Madhu Viswanathan, the Diane and Steven N. Miller Professor in Business, will receive the Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement.

Madhu Viswanathan, the Diane and Steven N. Miller Professor in Business, will receive the Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement.

Madhu Viswanathan, the Diane and Steven N. Miller Professor in Business at the U. of I., will receive the Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement. The award is presented to a faculty member who demonstrates exemplary accomplishments in teaching, research and public service in the international arena.

Viswanathan is being honored for his pioneering subsistence marketplace research in countries on several continents. The award recognizes his educational innovations in incorporating issues such as poverty and environmental sustainability into the curriculum and disseminating educational materials around the world. The award also recognizes his social initiative on marketplace literacy and empowerment through micro-level entrepreneurship, which has had measureable impact in elevating the standard of living for economically marginalized people in developing nations.

S. Ismat Shah, a professor in the departments of materials science and engineering and of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware, will receive the Madhuri and Jagdish Sheth International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement. A native of Pakistan, Shah earned his Ph.D. in material science and engineering at Illinois in 1986. He will give the annual International Alumni Lecture at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center at 9 a.m. on April 11.

Established in 2000, the 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.

Shah is being honored for his humanitarian efforts in helping to raise resources for Pakistani and Afghan refugees displaced by natural disaster and war; for his promotion of higher education in Pakistan; and advancing the use of alternative energy sources in developing nations. The award also honors his promotion of dialogue between the Muslim community and other religious and social groups in Delaware, particularly after 9/11.

Abram J. Bicksler, the director of Sustainability Research for the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute in Chiang Mai, Thailand, will receive the Charles C. Stewart International Young Humanitarian Award. Bicksler earned his M.S. and a Ph.D. in natural resources and environmental sciences at Illinois and is being honored for his work on sustainable tropical agriculture in Thailand and Cambodia. He also works with the ECHO Asia Impact Center, which provides technical support for individuals and organizations working in agriculture and community development throughout Asia.

Rachel Lauren Storm, a Ph.D. student in global educational policy studies at the U. of I., will receive the Illinois International Graduate Achievement Award. The award recognizes her international volunteer work and activism, which focuses on anti-violence and justice among indigenous communities in Ecuador. She is the founder of the nonprofit organization Four Walls and a Roof, which supports survivors of domestic violence.

Tara R. McGovern, a U. of I. senior in socio-cultural and linguistic anthropology, will receive the Illinois International Undergraduate Achievement Award. The award honors McGovern’s research and volunteer activities in Ecuador, where she helped found a free English school for adolescents and children in her host community.

Read Next

Life sciences Photo of Michael Ward standing in tall grass on a riverbank.

How are migrating wild birds affected by H5N1 infection in the U.S.?

Each spring, roughly 3.5 billion wild birds migrate from their warm winter havens to their breeding grounds across North America, eating insects, distributing plant seeds and providing a variety of other ecosystem services to stopping sites along the way. Some also carry diseases like avian influenza, a worry for agricultural, environmental and public health authorities. […]

Announcements Marcelo Garcia, professor of civil and environmental engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering.

Illinois faculty member elected to National Academy of Engineering

Champaign, Ill. — Marcelo Garcia, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Social sciences Male and female student embracing on the quad with flowering redbud tree and the ACES library in the background. Photo by Michelle Hassel

Dating is not broken, but the trajectories of relationships have changed

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — According to some popular culture writers and online posts by discouraged singles lamenting their inability to find romantic partners, dating is “broken,” fractured by the social isolation created by technology, pandemic lockdowns and potential partners’ unrealistic expectations. Yet two studies of college students conducted a decade apart found that their ideas about […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010