Awards & Accolades

Awards & Accolades

By University Communications
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Shirin Antia
Shirin Antia
Dr. Monica Kraft
Dr. Monica Kraft
Brian Enquist
Brian Enquist
David Gramling
David Gramling
Dean Papajohn
Dean Papajohn
Jannelle Weakly
Jannelle Weakly
Gina Watkinson
Gina Watkinson
One of the stickers used in the "Elephants Never Forget … But People Do!" marketing campaign.
One of the stickers used in the "Elephants Never Forget … But People Do!" marketing campaign.

Congratulations to these recent honorees.

Antia Receives Teaching Association's Lifetime Achievement Award

Shirin Antia, the Meyerson Distinguished Professor of Disability and Rehabilitation in the Department of Disability and Psychoeducational Studies, has been given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association of College Educators – Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The award recognizes the "distinguished career of an ACE-DHH member across teaching, research and service in the preparation of teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing who has made a significant contribution to the field over the course of his or her career."

Antia, a former ACE-DHH president, has been with the UA since 1980.

Kraft to Receive American Thoracic Society's 2018 Distinguished Achievement Award

Dr. Monica Kraft, chair of the Department of Medicine in the College of Medicine – Tucson, has been chosen to receive the American Thoracic Society's Distinguished Achievement Award.

The award is given to people who have made "outstanding contributions to fighting respiratory disease through research, education, patient care, or advocacy."

Kraft's research focuses on chronic asthma and its treatment, and she recently published findings on molecular reasons for poor symptom control in obese asthma patients. She recently was given the Researcher of the Year Award by the Arizona chapter of the American College of Physicians.

Kraft, who is also a professor of medicine and the Robert and Irene Flinn Endowed Chair of Medicine, served as president of the ATS from 2012 to 2013. She has been at the UA since 2014.

Enquist Named Fellow by Ecological Society of America

Brian Enquist, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, has been named a 2018 fellow by the Ecological Society of America.

ESA fellows are members who, through their research, "advance or apply ecological knowledge in academics, government, non-profit organizations, and the broader society." Enquist was recognized for his "seminal discoveries on the origin and diversity of organismal form and function, the natural constraints controlling the organization of ecological systems, and the application of ecological scaling laws to ecosystem function."

Enquist began at the UA as an assistant professor in 2001. Three years later, Popular Science magazine named him among its "Brilliant 10," a list of 10 young scientists to watch.

Gramling Wins Book Award From Association of Applied Linguistics

David Gramling, an associate professor of German studies, has won the American Association for Applied Linguistics' 2018 Book Award for his 2016 monograph "The Invention of Monolingualism." Gramling will be presented with the award at the AAAL's conference in Chicago later this month.

The AAAL recognizes "high-quality books that make an exceptional contribution to the field as a whole or to a specific area of specialization." The award is presented biennially to two authors, for an edited book and a monograph.

Gramling's book explores the effects of monolingualism on nonelite and cosmopolitan populations and investigates how Turkish, Latin American, German and English writers have confronted monolingualism in their texts in recent decades.

Gramling has been at the UA since 2010.

UA Recognized for Transfer Pathways by Phi Theta Kappa

The UA has been named to Phi Theta Kappa's 2018 Transfer Honor Roll, which recognizes the top four-year institutions "creating dynamic pathways to support transfer students."

Institutions named to the Transfer Honor Roll were evaluated on areas such as how well they partnered with community colleges, pre- and post-transfer institutional support, and transfer innovations.

Honor roll applicants were judged by a panel of experts in higher education transfer. The UA was among 112 colleges and universities to be named to the honor roll in 2018.

Phi Theta Kappa is an honor society that recognizes college students' academic achievement and provides them with "opportunities to grow as scholars and leaders."

Papajohn Named Educator of the Year by Society of Civil Engineers

Dean Papajohn, an associate professor of practice in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, has been named Educator of the Year by the Southern Arizona branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The award recognizes an "engineer or educator with outstanding contributions in the field of engineering education, especially in the mentoring of students and young engineers." Papajohn's award was in the post-secondary category.

Papajohn worked for the Pima County Department of Transportation for a decade before becoming an adjunct professor in 2012. He wasn't the only UA engineer awarded this year: Mo Ehsani, a professor emeritus in the department, was named the Southern Arizona Engineer of the Year. Austin Urton, a UA alumnus who graduated with a Master of Engineering in 2013, was named Young Engineer of the Year.

Weakly, Watkinson Win State Association's Awards of Excellence

Jannelle Weakly, senior curator of photographic collections for Arizona State Museum, and Gina Watkinson, ASM's senior conservation lab coordinator, have been selected to receive  2018 Individual Awards of Excellence from the Museum Association of Arizona.

The award is given to those who exhibit leadership qualities in areas like collection, preservation, research, interpretation, education and professional standards, according to the MAA.

Weakly has served in her position with ASM since 2001; Watkinson has been at ASM since 2007.

Housing and Residential Life Wins Silver ADDY

The marketing team at Housing and Residential Life won a silver American Advertising Award earlier this month from the American Advertising Federation Tucson, the local chapter for the national organization.

Housing and Residential Life earned the ADDY with "Elephants Never Forget … But People Do!," a guerilla marketing campaign in 2017 that involved putting removable stickers with study tips around the UA's 23 residence halls. Tips included writing summaries of assigned readings and creating flashcards.

With a silver win at the local level, the campaign now has the chance to win at the district level against entries from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Andre Rocha, an undergraduate studying studio art, won the Student Best of Show ADDY in the category of art direction for Arizona men's soccer social media.

UA E-Cigarette Policy Review Task Force Recognized

The UA and its now disbanded E-Cigarette Policy Review Taskforce have been recognized by Arizonans Concerned About Smoking Inc. for the task force's work in researching and recommending a policy prohibiting e-cigarettes on campus. The UA became a tobacco-free environment in August 2014. In October 2015, the E-Cigarette Policy Review Taskforce was convened to consider whether e-cigarette use on campus should be prohibited as well. The task force recommended in April 2016 that e-cigarettes be banned, and the recommendation became policy in April 2017. The task force, having completed its goal, was later disbanded.


We want to know about your good news. If you, your team or a colleague has won any major awards, been honored nationally or internationally, or accomplished some other major feat that deserves recognition, let us know about it.

To submit your news, please send us an email with the following information:

  •   Name of the person, team or unit receiving the honor with full UA titles.
  •   Information about the award/honor and the organization that granted it. Please include a link to the official announcement of the award/honor, when the honor was announced and when it will be presented (or was presented).
  •   A photo of the honoree. If others appear in the photo, please provide their names and identifying information, such as their UA title or other affiliation.

Questions? Contact Lo Que Pasa at uaatwork@email.arizona.edu.

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