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Four on faculty awarded Hettleman Prizes
for their artistic, scholarly achievement

CHAPEL HILL – Four faculty members at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will receive 2005 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty on Friday (Sept. 16).

The recipients were recognized by Chancellor James Moeser at this afternoon’s Faculty Council meeting. They are: Dr. Aysenil Belger, of the College of Arts and Sciences’ department of psychiatry; Dr. Chris Clemens, of the College of Arts and Sciences’ department of physics and astronomy; Pat Davison, of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication; and Dr. Bob Goldstein, of the College of Arts and Sciences’ biology department.

The Hettleman Prize carries a $5,000 stipend and recognizes the achievements of outstanding junior tenure-track faculty or recently tenured faculty.

The award was established in 1986 by Phillip Hettleman, the now-deceased UNC alumnus and New York investment banker. Recipients will lecture about their work during the current academic year.

Belger, an associate professor, has been at UNC since 2000. Her research primarily focuses on the neurobiological bases of neurocognitive disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism.

Belger’s work on schizophrenia is considered groundbreaking in the insights it provides into normal brain function and how the brain malfunctions in neuropsychiatric disorders. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electrophysiology, she had made significant contributions to understanding the brain circuits that are involved with the symptoms of schizophrenia.

In a letter nominating Belger for the Hettleman Prize, John Gilmore, professor and vice chair for research and scientific affairs in the psychiatry department, said, "Her pioneering work in identifying the brain circuits that are abnormal in schizophrenia provides the basis for focusing future genetic and neurobiological research on these important brain circuits, as well as for developing rehabilitative approaches to those suffering from this disorder."

Clemens, also an associate professor, has been at UNC since 1998. His work with the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR) has shown that he can take a modest budget and design state-of-the-art instruments.

"Chris is our key to the largest telescopes," said Bruce Carney, Samuel Baron professor of physics and astronomy and the College’s senior associate dean for sciences, in his nomination letter for Clemens.

Clemens has taken a new technology, volume phase holography, and made it his own. This technology can make a 4-meter telescope, such as SOAR, and make it as good or better than an 8-meter telescope. But the technology is difficult to manufacture, and suppliers are unreliable, so Clemens has learned to do it himself.

"In the end, Chris delivered an instrument that will be better than anything else on any telescope in the world, and he did soon a budget," Carney said. "He is a technological and scientific pioneer who engages his students in exploring both types of frontiers, and he is, at the same time, an eloquent teacher."

An assistant professor, Davison joined the UNC journalism school faculty in 2001, bringing with him an award-winning background in photojournalism. He led the efforts by The Rocky Mountain News in Denver that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for its coverage of the Columbine High School shootings.

Davison has moved the journalism school and his students to the forefront of multimedia photojournalism.

"He has created a remarkable number of projects and activities in photojournalism, including the Tuesday Photo Nights, each of which draws an outstanding professional photographer to the campus each time for a session with scores of students," said Richard Cole, the school’s former dean.

"Pat has worked extraordinarily well with several international projects involving multimedia Web sites in Chile and South Africa," Cole said. "The resulting interactive Web sites that were created have won big international prizes."

Goldstein, an associate professor, came to UNC in 1999. His research includes examining the role of cell signaling in the process of establishing polarized cell divisions in the early embryo. His work, which showed that the pathway that mediates these cell interactions is mutated in several human cancers, was profiled in the Journal of Cell Biology.

Goldstein’s work examining how cell polarity influences cell behavior in the later stages of development and the system he developed for studying this process has been published in the journal Development and reviewed in Developmental Cell and Current Biology.

"Goldstein is an exceptionally innovative and independent young scientist who has made seminal discoveries in three different fields during the past five years," said Steven Matson, professor chair of the biology department, in a letter nominating Goldstein for the prize. "His contributions to the scientific literature have been outstanding, and he is already recognized as one of the international leaders in his field."

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/clemens_chris.jpg
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339, deereid@unc.edu
School of Journalism and Mass Communication contact: John Kuka, (919) 966-3323, jkuka@unc.edu
University Communications contact: Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593