Four faculty members were honored with the Campus Awards for Excellence in Faculty Leadership at the Celebration of Academic Service and Leadership event held at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center on May 11.
Given by the Office of the Provost, the three annual awards recognize faculty members who distinguish themselves with their vision of the future and their effort to enable and promote others in shaping that future. Each award consists of an honorarium of $2,000 for the personal use of the recipient and a personalized commemorative plaque. The event also recognized members of provost committees.
J. Craig Dutton, a professor of aerospace engineering.
Craig Dutton, a professor of aerospace engineering, received the Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award; Ariana Traill, a professor and the head of the department of the classics, and Dale J. Van Harlingen, Donald Bigger Willet Professor of Engineering and department head of physics, received the Executive Officer Distinguished Leadership Award; and Matthew B. Wheeler, a professor of animal sciences, received the Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award.
Dutton was honored for actively assisting pre-tenure and midcareer faculty in developing their careers. His mentees say he not only excels in his role as a faculty mentor, but is passionate about it. Illinois is “truly blessed to have among its faculty a role model like Craig who, year after year, shares his experience with his younger colleagues.”
Ariana Traill, a professor and the head of the department of the classics.
Traill was honored for her outstanding leadership and vision by an executive officer in a campus unit. She has worked tirelessly and energetically toward replenishing her department’s diminished resources at every level: budgetary, faculty recruiting (including increasing its gender and underrepresented ratios), curricular development, undergraduate and graduate education, mentoring, evaluation, outreach and fundraising. As noted by an external reviewer of the department, the department of the classics “[r]ecovered … from a period of crippling acrimony” and now “enjoys superb collegiality under the able leadership of Ariana Traill.”
Dale J Van Harlingen, head and Donald Bigger Willet Professor of Engineering, Physics.
Van Harlingen was honored for being an exemplar of effective leadership for leading diverse groups through strategic improvements in his campus unit. He worked tirelessly to preserve the department’s top-10 ranking and the No. 1 ranking of its flagship Condensed Matter Physics program. During his tenure as head, he has rebuilt the faculty size, hiring 22 faculty, including six women; led a number of crucial renovations to improve instructional and interactive spaces; implemented a variety of educational innovations; identified and led a variety of new fundraising efforts; and pursued numerous innovative ways to promote and communicate the department’s accomplishments.
Matthew B. Wheeler, a professor of animal sciences, received the Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award.
Wheeler was honored for providing extraordinary leadership contributions across many dimensions of shared governance that advance the excellence of a campus unit, and for exemplifying the campus commitment to collaborative decision-making. He has been a leader at every level of campus and university service, which includes serving on a staggering number of committees – 197. From departmental and college committee service to the campus Senate, Wheeler’s love for Illinois and his “enormous generosity and self-sacrifice in serving it” are evident.
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