Five faculty members named CIC fellows

Five UI faculty members have been named 2011-12 fellows of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation‘s Academic Leadership Program.

Established in 1989, the program helps develop leadership and managerial skills of faculty members demonstrating “exceptional ability and academic promise.”

Fellows are selected by CIC member institutions, which include the Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago.

Once selected, fellows take part in a series of meetings held at three member institutions over the next year. Topics change annually but center on contemporary higher education issues that include diversity, engagement, faculty development and institutional financial planning strategies.

“I think fellows benefit greatly because this program helps open their eyes to much greater issues outside of Illinois,” said Vice Provost Barb Wilson, the campus CIC liaison.

Wilson said fellows gain from the general knowledge presented, but the on-site setting also gives them insight into how member institutions are tackling common problems.

“Part of the program includes presentations made by two senior-level leaders at each campus, which usually includes the chancellor or provost or president,” she said. “These senior leaders are very candid and they talk about their personal philosophies as well as the challenges on their campuses.”

Wilson said fellows are selected based on an application process through each college, with deans making final recommendations to the Office of the Provost.

“The main prerequisite is that they have an interest in leadership,” she said. “Candidates who are selected have already shown some strong academic leadership. This program allows them to contemplate future options in their careers.”

Wilson said the university and the CIC track the success of this program as well as its Department Executive Officers Seminars program, an annual training and development program for department heads and chairs from member universities. She said university liaisons also meet annually with the CIC to plan the course of future programming.

“We look at where our fellows end up and we keep track of what leadership positions they take,” she said. “There is a good deal of evaluation of each program.”

The 2011-12 CIC Fellows:

Abbas Benmamoun is a professor of linguistics and the director of the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics. He earned his Ph.D. in linguistics in 1992 at the University of Southern California, and served as the head of the UI’s department of linguistics from 2004 to 2010.

His research focuses on the syntax and morphology of natural language and on Arabic as a heritage language of second-generation Arab-Americans. He also has collaborated with colleagues on projects on language acquisition, comparative syntax and computational linguistics, and is the author and a co-author of two books in the field.

His research has been funded by grants and awards from the Fulbright and the National Science foundations.

Laurie F. Kramer is the associate dean for academic programs in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. She also is a professor of applied family studies in the department of human and community development and a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research and teaching programs center on children’s sibling relationships and family stress and coping.

She has served as a co-editor for several national journals and is on the editorial board of two national journal publications.

In 2004, she was recognized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture with a Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in College and University Teaching Award (North Central Region), and in 2005 she received a Teacher Fellow Award from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture.

She also is the founding director of the Family Resiliency Center and the UI’s Pampered Chef Family Resiliency Program.

Susan A. Martinis, a biochemistry professor and the head of the department since 2009, focuses her research in the fields of RNA, protein synthesis, the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and RNA splicing.

Her research group is supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. She has four patents, has served as a charter and permanent member of the NIH Molecular Genetics A study section, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

She has won several teaching awards and prior to returning to academia was employed by Cubist Pharmaceuticals, producer of Cubicin, a medication used for treatment of acute bacterial infections.

Joseph J. Martocchio serves as an Administrative Provost Fellow in the Executive Leadership Program, where he is undertaking projects on strategic human resource issues for the campus.

A professor in the School of Labor and Employment Relations, his research interests focus on such human resources issues as compensation, training, absenteeism and generational dynamics in the workplace. He received the Ernest J. McCormick Award for Distinguished Early Career Contributions from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. He also is a fellow of the society as well as of the American Psychological Association.

Martocchio is the author of numerous scholarly articles, and he has written two textbooks on compensation and employee benefits.

Andreas A. Polycarpou, who joined the UI faculty in 1999, is the associate head of undergraduate programs in the department of mechanical science and engineering.

His UI research group studies micro/nanotribology of magnetic head disk interfaces and microelectromechanical systems. The group’s recent emphasis has been on the tribology of devices for reduced energy and improved environmental-related impact.

Polycarpou is the author of more than 120 journal papers, numerous book chapters, volume proceedings, patents and conference papers.

He has won numerous national and international awards. He has chaired the ASME Tribology Division, is an associate editor of the ASME Journal of Tribology, serves on several editorial boards, and has organized numerous conferences.