ACCOLADES :: ACHIEVEMENTS :: AWARDS

Isaac Barchas

The IC2 Institute has named Isaac Barchas director of the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI). The technology startup incubation and acceleration program of IC2, ATI has helped start more than 150 technology companies since 1989. Barchas, who most recently spent more than eight years with McKinsey & Co. working extensively on private sector growth and performance initiatives and public sector economic development programs, will take over the position vacated by Dr. Joel Wiggins in August 2005.

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has awarded $20,000 to Monica Penick, a doctoral candidate in architectural history in the School of Architecture, as an American Dissertation Fellow for 2006-2007. The award will support Penick's final year of writing her dissertation, "The Forgotten Generation: House Beautiful's Pace Setter House Program and the Popularization of Organic Modernism in Postwar America, 1945-1965." Chosen from a field of 738 applicants from all fields of scholarship, Penick is among 40 fellows awarded the prestigious Dissertation Fellowship.

Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum recently selected the McCombs School of Business as one of four university learning partners working in a consortium to support its global Project Academy program. Lawrence Abeln, associate dean and director of executive education at the McCombs School, said: “This learning consortium is a powerful combination of leading international business schools and technical centers of excellence in project engineering and project management.”

John Leckenby, professor and the Everett D. Collier Centennial Chair in Communication in the Department of Advertising, has been named a Fellow of the American Academy of Advertising.

Eric Pianka, the Denton A. Cooley Centennial Professor of Integrative Biology, was recognized as the 2006 Distinguished Scientist by the Texas Academy of Science (TAS) for his distinguished career and numerous seminal contributions to the discipline of ecology.

The UT Austin Individual Events speech team earned two national titles in Impromptu Speaking and Communication Analysis at the American Forensic Association National Individual Events Tournament. The team also showcased two national runners-up, nearly matching last year’s record four national event titles. Of the 18 UT Austin students who competed, 15 were recognized with honors, including Stephanie Cagniart, a senior majoring in government, who is the third UT Austin student to be recognized as an All-American. Rina Shah, a senior honors student majoring in psychology and business, was the second UT Austin student elected as the national student representative to the Executive Council of the National Individual Events Tournament.

UT Austin alumnus Kyle Henry (master of fine arts ’99) and College of Communication Dean Roderick P. Hart have been honored with The University of Texas Film Institute’s Vanguard and Leadership Awards, respectively. The Vanguard Award recognizes recent alumni whose creative or technical achievements are making waves in the film industry. The Leadership Award, which recognizes vision and dedication to the advancement of film education, was given to Hart for his ongoing support of the UT Film Institute.

Julie Babler, a graphic designer in the Office of Public Affairs; Marsha Miller,  director of photography in the Office of Public Affairs; and Cory Leahy, communication coordinator in the McCombs School of Business, won gold and bronze awards for their work on the McCombs MBA viewbook at a recent Council for the Advancement and Support of Education District IV design competition.

Leslie Ernst, a Web designer in the Office of Public Affairs, won first prize in the national design competition held by the American Association of Museums for her work on a poster for the Harry Ransom Center exhibition “Technologies of Writing.” In the same competition, Ernst also won an honorable mention for the Ransom Center’s fall 2005 and spring 2006 program calendar.

Three faculty members have been named recipients of Sloan Research Fellowships for 2006. Martin Olsson and Yen-Hsi Richard Tsai, assistant professors in the Department of Mathematics, and Thomas Truskett, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering,  will each receive $45,000 over two years to be used on research of their choice.