Online Edition | Washington State University | Pullman, Washington | Friday, February 22, 2002

Sahlin, Smith, faculty address
Five top WSU faculty 
selected for awards
By Tim Marsh, University Relations

Washington State University faculty members, Frances K. "Fran" McSweeney, Ron C. Mittelhammer, John L. "Skip" Paznokas, Lynda Paznokas and Kerry W. Hipps, have been named among the winners of this year’s top honors for university faculty.

These five — in addition to the Eminent Faculty Award winner, Don A. Dillman — will be saluted during the annual WSU Faculty Honors Convocation, 3 p.m. Thursday, April 4, in Bryan Hall Auditorium.

Frances McSweeney, professor of psychology, will receive the Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Research, Scholarship and Arts. The Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Instruction will go to Ron C. Mittelhammer, agricultural economics professor. John L. "Skip" Paznokas will receive the Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Public Service. Lynda Paznokas, teaching and learning associate professor, will receive the Marian E. Smith Faculty Achievement Award, for significant and meritorious achievement in teaching.

Kerry W. Hipps, chemistry and materials science professor, was selected to deliver the Distinguished Faculty Address. Although honored during the convocation, Hipps will give the address on April 23.

Frances McSweeney is known for her fundamental work on behavior and reinforcement. The National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health have funded much of her research. McSweeney, who has taught at WSU since 1974, is an Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor, and serves on grant review panels and research journal editorial boards. She is a Smith College graduate and earned her master of science and doctoral degrees from Harvard University.

Ron Mittelhammer is one of the most effective teachers of statistics and econometrics in the United States, say his nominators. At WSU since 1977, his coherent and well-reasoned lectures make even highly complex concepts understandable, especially when supplemented by the use of his own interactive computer-based instructional materials. He has written two textbooks. A graduate of Rutgers University, Mittelhammer earned his master of science degree from Rutgers and his doctoral degree from WSU.

Skip Paznokas’ efforts with teachers of science, including those in biology, have been honored statewide. Especially notable is his commitment to in-service training, during which teachers learn new skills to assist them in class. Paznokas, at WSU since 1976, is a WSU Boeing Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Science Education. He is a graduate of the University of California Riverside. His master of arts degree is from UCR and his doctoral degree is from St. Louis University.

Lynda Paznokas is a WSU Boeing Distinguished Professor of Science Education. She has helped revamp and revise the university’s elementary science teaching methods courses. Her efforts have created WSU student-centered science education laboratories, a science education classroom, an outdoor education program and a science education course for WSU’s new Master’s in Teaching degree. A member of the WSU faculty since 1999, Paznokas is a WSU graduate. Her master’s degree is from Portland State University and her doctoral degree is from Oregon State University.

A WSU faculty member since 1978, Kerry W. Hipps is a researcher and teacher in the physics and chemistry of molecules and solids. His accomplishments in single-molecule electronics, using the scanning tunneling microscope, provide a base from which to launch a number of new technologies. His skills in presenting information to his students, his peers and to lay audiences are praised by them. His published papers show strength in both theory and experiment. Hipps is a University of Texas at El Paso graduate. He earned his doctoral degree from WSU.