Susan Olesik, who was recently appointed dean for natural and mathematical sciences effective July 1, is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of analytical chemistry. She sits on the Academic Affairs, Student Life and Research Committee of the Board of Trustees and co-chairs the University Advisory Subcommittee of the Presidential Search Committee. Olesik is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Chemical Society. She served as chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry from 2011-2019, during which she helped launch the interdisciplinary Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry Building. Committed to inclusion and access, Olesik has overseen scholarship programs that support first-generation and underrepresented undergraduate students, and she directs the Ohio House of Science and Engineering and Wonders of Our World science outreach programs. Olesik earned her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been a faculty member at Ohio State since 1986.

Peter Craigmile has been elected as a 2020 Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) Fellow. Craigmile was recognized for his outstanding contributions to the study of time series models, long memory processes and spatio-temporal processes; influential cross-disciplinary contributions; and dedicated services to the IMS and the profession.

Jill Clark, associate professor in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and Sustainability Institute affilated faculty, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to Canada for “Scaling-up food democracy: An analysis of Canadian and U.S. food policy councils.” During her time in Canada, Clark will do research at Carleton University to study the role of local, state and provincial food policy councils in a national food policy.    

Elena Irwin, agricultural, environmental and development economics professor and Sustainability Institute faculty director, presented during the Sustainability and Ohio Lands: Creating Value for People and the Environment event. Irwin presented on the topic of Ohio's sustainability, challenging viewers to think about why and how Ohio is sustainable. View the presentation.

Nagib received the award in support of his research and outstanding scholarship. The award includes support for our ongoing research on developing synthetic methods to construct new medicines, including radical-mediated C-H and C-O functionalization.

Renee Zhao, an assistant professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Sustainability Institute, received two awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in spring 2020. Earlier this year, Zhao received a five-year Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for her research in the mechanics of soft intelligent materials. More recently, NSF announced funding over the next three years for her project “Micromechanics of Interactions Between Hard Magnetic Particles and Soft Matrix on Magneto-Mechanical Actuation.”

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences announced the election of its new members for 2020, which includes a Sustainability Institute affiliated faculty, Clark Larsen, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Anthropology. Larsen is a biological anthropologist whose research focuses on the history of the human condition viewed from the perspective of health, quality of life, adaptation and lifestyle over the last 10,000 years of human evolution. His research and subsequent article based on his study of the ancient city, Çatalhöyük, recently received the 2019 Cozzarelli Prize from the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Larsen will be inducted, along with the rest of this year's class, at a ceremony in October in Cambridge, Massachusetts.   

Recipients are nominated by their departments and chosen by a committee of senior faculty, including past award recipients. Distinguished Scholars receive an honorarium and a research grant to be used over the next three years. The award is supported by the Office of Research. 

Claudia Turro, Dow Professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has received the Outstanding Alumni Award from her alma mater, Michigan State University. The award recognizes, among other accomplishments, Turro's "groundbreaking advances in the areas of inorganic chemistry, photochemistry and ultrafast spectroscopy, which has led to important discoveries with impact in medicinal chemistry and solar energy."

Chris Otter is an associate professor of history at Ohio State. He studies the history of technologies of many sizes and at many scales. Otter is a specialist in modern British history, with particular focus on the history of science, technology and public health, environmental history and the history of food.For the period of the 2020-2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, he will be working on his long-term research project on the history and concept of the technosphere, the sum total of all human technologies comprehended at multiple scales, from the tools and devices in our hands to our slowly warming atmosphere. “I am honestly very humbled to receive this award!” said Otter via email. “I will use it to continue research for a long-term book project on the history of the Earth's technosphere. The technosphere is the sum total of all human technological activity, from fire and the earliest stone tools to today's digital networks and warming atmosphere. Hopefully I will get a reasonable chunk of the book written as well.”