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James Corwin
James Corwin

Stephen Martin
Stephen Martin

Donald Richgels
Donald Richgels

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News Release

Contact: Tom Parisi, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-3635

April 19, 2005

Corwin, Martin and Richgels named
2005 Presidential Research Professors

DeKalb, Ill. — Northern Illinois University faculty members James Corwin in psychology, Stephen Martin in physics and Donald Richgels in literacy education have been awarded 2005 Presidential Research Professorships, the university's top recognition for outstanding research.

“We are fortunate to have all three of them here on our faculty,” says Rathindra Bose, NIU vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School. “They not only contribute to enhance NIU's academic reputation but also contribute significant new knowledge in their fields.”

The Presidential Research Professorships have been awarded annually since 1982. For the first time, the selection process this year sought input from sources outside of NIU. “Once we had whittled down the number of nominees, we sent information to unbiased, outside reviewers who are well recognized as leaders in their respective fields,” Bose says. “They had outstanding things to say about this year's crop of award winners.”

Presidential Research Professors receive special financial support of their research for four years, after which they carry the title of Distinguished Research Professor. (See www.niu.edu/president/prplist.shtml for a list of past winners.) Here's a closer look at this year's award recipients.

Brain gains

They eat only what's on the right side of their plates, comb just the right side of their heads or use only the right side of their bodies. For patients with long-term spatial neglect syndrome, it's as if the left side of their worlds doesn't exist.

A severe head injury or, more typically, a major stroke can cause the neuropsychological disorder, which usually involves trauma to the brain's right hemisphere. About half of the 600,000 Americans who suffer from debilitating strokes each year experience some symptoms of the puzzling condition. Most patients get better, but one-quarter of those affected never recover.

NIU Psychology Professor James Corwin has dedicated the last two decades of his career toward gaining a better understanding of the brain mechanisms that inhibit recovery. He and longtime colleague Roger Reep of the University of Florida have explored the basic mechanisms of neglect syndrome in rats and pinpointed the region of the brain that affects spatial awareness.

Their most recent efforts have demonstrated that injections of molecules known as monoclonal antibodies into damaged regions of the animals' brains can regenerate the growth of neurons and restore spatial behavior.

“The factors that affect recovery from brain damage are quite similar in rats and humans. So the rat has been an excellent model,” says Corwin, who is also working with researchers at Loyola University Medical Center and the University of Zurich. “The ultimate hope of everyone I work with is that this research will lead to recovery in humans from the disabling effects of brain damage produced by stroke, but we're only at the beginning of our understanding.”

The potential of the research has caught the attention of the National Institute of Mental Health, which awarded research grants to Corwin and Reep in 2000 and 2004 totaling nearly $2 million. Scientists in the field also have taken note of the long body of work produced by the researchers.

“Professor Corwin has an integrated program of research with a foundation of well-regarded and necessary basic research that has considerable applied clinical significance,” says Verity Brown, head of the School of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland . “His work has had a significant impact in the field. His publications are regularly cited and in the best journals.”

Corwin earned his Ph.D. in neuroscience and learning from the University of Kentucky in 1979. He arrived at NIU in 1991 and typically teaches introductory courses on the brain and behavior, as well as graduate courses in neuroanatomy and neuropsychology.

He also coordinates the Neuroscience and Behavior Program, consisting of three faculty members and five graduate students in the department. Over the years, as many as 30 undergraduate and graduate students have been involved in his research.

“Jim's research has the potential to have a very important application for humans at some point, but he also happens to be a tremendous teacher who is popular among our students,” says Chuck Miller, chair of the NIU Department of Psychology.

In six consecutive years, Corwin won the department's award for undergraduate teacher of the year. He also has been a finalist five times for the university-wide Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Super (symmetry) hero

To understand the daunting challenge of high energy physics, imagine searching for a few needles in the proverbial haystack. Only the haystack is the size of Texas and the needles only appear for a brief moment in time, if they exist at all.

Instead of needles, high energy physicists search for new subatomic particles theorized to exist for a tiny fraction of a millisecond. Verifying their existence would help explain how the universe works at its most fundamental level.

As a theorist, NIU physicist Stephen Martin tells scientists where to look and what to look for—and they listen intently. His research papers have been cited nearly 3,000 times in physics literature; at least a half dozen are considered “famous” in the particle physics community.

“Dr. Martin has established himself internationally as one of the best and most recognized theorists in the field,” says David Hedin, an NIU Distinguished Research Professor. “He also is one of our best teachers and has been a leader in communicating complex and cutting-edge ideas to the scientific community and students worldwide.”

Martin earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1988. He arrived a decade later at NIU, where he has received continuous funding support from the National Science Foundation.

His current work is expanding scientists' understanding of the particles and forces that make up the universe. In particular, Martin has been instrumental in the refinement and extension of a popular theory known as supersymmetry. Established in the 1970s, the theory predicts that for each known fundamental particle, such as an electron or quark, a yet-to-be-discovered “superpartner” must also exist.

“Superpartners are expected to be much heavier and more unstable than known particles,” Martin says. “This makes them very difficult to produce and detect, explaining why they have eluded discovery so far.”

Peers say few in the world can do what Martin does. His work requires mathematical calculations that can be hundreds of pages long. The research, used in computer programs by experimentalists, ultimately predicts the signatures of the superpartners and the energy levels needed to produce them.

While supersymmetry theory isn't universally accepted, Martin believes new particles will be identified within the next five years through particle collider experiments at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia or the Large Hadron Collider in Europe.

“Steve Martin has published a number of classic papers in the field, gems which are used by the entire community,” says Howard Baer, the J.D. Kimel Professor of Physics at Florida State University. “He also has been closely associated with Fermilab since he began work at NIU and has been making his leadership skills felt at America's leading particle physics laboratory.”

Known for being clear and concise, Martin is enormously popular as a lecturer and speaker. He published a standard modern review of supersymmetry and is working with researchers from Germany and California on a book that will serve as a text for graduate students and a resource for scientists.

“Supersymmetry theory is a difficult subject for outsiders to penetrate,” Martin says. “It's important to find new ways to communicate theoretical research developments to students and experimentalists.”

Spoken word, written word

Most children talk before they learn to read or write, but parents seldom realize how closely the three skills are connected.

Fortunately, many teachers grasp the holistic nature of their students' mastery of communication – and they have Donald Richgels to thank. A professor in the College of Education 's Department of Literacy Education, Richgels has studied the link for a quarter-century.

“It's important to have a strong oral language basis for written language learning, and that includes not only phonemic awareness but vocabulary development and conversation,” says Richgels, a first-grade teacher for eight years in the 1970s who enjoyed the creativity and unpredictability of young children.

Richgels defines phonemic awareness as conscious attention to the sounds that make up words. What young children know about the relation between sounds and letters does not necessarily fit conventional thinking, he says, and “only when they learn to read and write do they have to bring knowledge of sounds to a conscious level.”

On the way to achieving phonemic awareness, many children employ “invented spelling.” Children might spell the word “chair” this way – “har” – because they hear the “ch” sound in the letter “H.”

“Invented spelling is a good way of assessing children's phonemic awareness and promoting their phonemic awareness. It's interesting to see young children write before they are bound by convention. It frees them up,” he says. “The more they read and are read to, and see words in print, the more they are aware that their way of spelling isn't the conventional system adults use.”

With his theory in place, Richgels wanted to learn what worked in practice.

While gathering data through conducting spelling tests in a St. Charles elementary school, he met “amazing” kindergarten teacher Karla Poremba.

She invited Richgels to observe her classroom, and he paid weekly visits during the 1992-93 school year. He was a daily visitor the next year, resulting in reams of data, numerous conference presentations and, eventually, the 2003 book “Going to Kindergarten: A Year with an Outstanding Teacher.”

Richgels watched Poremba engage students in “actual” conversations, asking questions to which she did not already know the answers and creating routines for written language learning.

“When the kindergartners arrived on August 30, they represented a wide range of abilities, knowledge and skills,” Richgels writes in his book. “All experienced significant growth between then and June 8. And they did it with joy, and as collaborators, not competitors. Sharing that joy, witnessing that collaboration, was a daily pleasure.”

Victoria Purcell-Gates, a researcher in early childhood literacy at the University of British Columbia, calls Richgels' research “among the most influential in the field.”

“Don Richgels is a careful and insightful researcher,” Purcell-Gates says. “(He) knows his stuff, and he knows it because he built his empirical base in a straight-forward and continuous fashion. This quality among researchers is so valuable and, unfortunately, rare.”

He next will test his theories in other classrooms and develop an invented spelling assessment situated in everyday reading and writing tasks.

“I have the opportunity to continue what I enjoy most,” he says, “exploring new things, asking questions and finding answers.”

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