Kudos

Chris Carger, an associate professor in the College of Education Department of Literacy Education, was elected chairperson of the Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, a national award for children's books that feature Latino themes given at the Library of Congress in June.

Gene Roth

Gene Roth, Presidential Teaching Professor in the College of Education Department of Counseling, Adult and Health Education, was one of 64 people invited to attend the Future Search Conference for the American Society of Training and Development in Alexandria, Va. This working conference was conducted to develop insights for future planning for this professional association of more than 50,000 members.

NIU's chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) was recognized for its outstanding performance during 2000_2001 by the IIE National Office as a Gold Chapter. The award places NIU in the same company with two of the top industrial engineering programs in the nation, Purdue University and Georgia Institute of Technology. More than 300 chapters nationwide entered the competition, and there were 15 recipients of the award. The award acknowledges the chapter's community, academic and professional involvement in the industry. IIE has participated in a variety of activities throughout the year such as establishing a mentoring program and visiting local high schools and charities.

Susan Vogel, a presidential research professor in the College of Education Department of Literacy Education; Nancy Long, a professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders, and Nancy Kasinski, director of the Center for Access-Ability Resources, recently received a three-year grant ($91,000 per year) from the Illinois State Board of Education. The project, titled "Enhancing Success for Students with Disabilities in Higher Education," is designed to enhance enrollment and degree completion of students with disabilities by reducing invisible barriers from the very first efforts to apply for admission through each state of their academic career, culminating in degree completion.

Physics Professor Thomas Rossing recently has published a book, "Teaching Light and Color," with former student Christopher Chiaverina. This book provides college and high school teachers with many of the resources they need to teach courses on light science or to enhance the teaching of light in their physics courses. Rossing's publications over the years, which now include 14 books as well as 20 patents, have been mainly in the areas of acoustics, magnetism and physics education. Last year, he published the third edition of his textbook "Science of Sound" (AddisonWesley, San Francisco), which has become the most widely used textbook on musical acoustics worldwide.

The NIU Forensics team has had a very successful season, and recently added to their achievements with a first place win by NIU student Jim Yeager at the Pi Kappa Delta Honorary National Tournament in St. Louis, Mo., last month. The NIU Forensics' novice team also took home first place at the Highland College tournament earlier this month.

Winifred Creamer

Winifred Creamer's discovery of an ancient and sophisticated civilization at Caral, Peru, was named as one of the top 100 science stories of 2001 by Discover magazine. The professor of anthropology was part of a research team that announced last April that radiocarbon dating had determined six immense pyramids at Caral are the oldest known man-made monuments in the Americas. The site at Caral also may have been one of the Americas' first cities, with hundreds of upper-, middle- and lower-status dwellings and irrigated agriculture. A BBC documentary on the find recently aired overseas and should be televised in the United States soon.