Kudos: Professor Mary Lou Guerinot Wins Stephen Hales Prize

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Awards recognize accomplishments in biology, art, chemistry, and more.

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an iron bannister in Baker Library with the letters D and C worked in a fancy script
(Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)
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Kudos is an occasional column that recognizes Dartmouth faculty, students, and staff who have received awards or other honors. Did you or a colleague recently receive an award or honor? Please tell us about it: dartmouth.news@dartmouth.edu.

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Mary Lou Guerinot, the Ronald and Deborah Harris Professor in the Sciences, has been awarded the 2018 Stephen Hales Prize from the American Society of Plant Biologists, honoring the Rev. Hales for his pioneering work in plant biology published in 1727. The society cites Guerinot as “a world leader in plant nutrition who has provided outstanding service to the plant biology community and as a dedicated educator, providing undergraduate, postgraduate, and postdoctoral training.” It further states that her discoveries, “made with her collaborative network, increase our understanding of plant biology, contribute to better farming practice, and offer the possibility of improved human nutrition.” Says Guerinot, “It’s a great honor and I am grateful to ASPB for recognizing my contributions. Of course, the award is really recognizing the amazing team I have worked with over the years. I have to thank all my collaborators, grad students, postdocs, and undergrads with whom I have had the privilege to work.”

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Petra Bonfert-Taylor, a professor and instructional designer at Thayer School of Engineering, has been named the 2018 TechTeacher of the Year by the New Hampshire High Tech Council’s TechWomen|TechGirls Committee. On April 4, she was honored at the annual TechWomen|TechGirls Awards Luncheon, an event that recognizes women working in science, technology, engineering, and math who have advanced the role of women and girls in New Hampshire’s technology sector. 

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Kristin O’Rourke, a senior lecturer in art history, has won the Emilie du Châtelet Award, given by the Women’s Caucus of American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies to support research in progress on a feminist or women’s studies subject. O’Rourke will use the award for work on her current project, “Images of the Toilette and Domesticity in 18th-Century France.” 

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Soo Sunny Park is one of 15 artists featured in the North Carolina Museum of Art’s interactive exhibition You Are Here, on display April 7 through July 22. “Soo Sunny Park’s kinetic work is not just a fence and silver plastic tiles, or the projectors, cameras, and light, but the living assemblage of all of them,” according to the museum website. In her artist’s statement, Park writes, “Here I explore kinetic sculpture in a new way. If light is a material out of which the work is made, can light be an interesting kinetic element? Can it be the only kinetic element? And would such a piece allow us to explore liminal spaces in a new way?” 

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Katherine Mirica, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, was recently awarded a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, one of 21 recipients out of more than 100 nominations from over 60 academic institutions. The award, which provides $45,000 of unrestricted funds over three years, recognizes outstanding young faculty who excel in research, academic leadership, and experience and is intended to help young faculty achieve tenure while teaching and conducting research.

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