Research Awards

UNI Distinguished Scholar Award

Dr. Otto MacLin

Dr. MacLin completed his Post Doctoral research in eyewitness identification at the University of Texas at El Paso. His current teaching interests are in Sensation & Perception, Conditioning & Learning, Behavior Modification, Advanced Statistics, and History & Systems.  General research interests include cognitive and metacognitive aspects of face recognition as well as applied aspects of face recognition such as eyewitness identification. Specific research projects include comparing simultaneous vs. sequential lineup administration, suggestibility of show-ups, developing computer software to facilitate lineup administration, examination of the cross-race effect, and the examination of the perceptual dimensions underlying face recognition. He is a co-author of books in the area of Cognitive Psychology, Behavior Modification and Computer Programming for Behavioral Research. He also serves as a psychological consultant to attorneys on cases involving eyewitness identification.

2007-2008 College of Business Administration Faculty Scholarship Award

Dr. Mark Bauman

Dr. Bauman's teaching interests lie in financial accounting, while his research interests include usefulness of accounting data to investors, creditors, and financial analysts.  Mark has a strong record of publication in the field of accounting. He has papers published in the Journal of the American Taxation Association, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Accounting Horizons, Research in Accounting Regulation, and the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, to name a few.  Before coming to UNI, he was a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He not only has outstanding academic credentials, but comes to teaching with experience as a Senior Financial Analyst with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and as a Staff Internal Auditor with the National Bank of Washington (DC).

2008 College of Education Award for Excellence in Scholarship

Dr. Elana Joram

Dr. Joram is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Foundations. Her research has focused on how children and adults comprehend mathematical concepts, particularly in everyday contexts. Elana has also developed instruction to more effectively teach mathematical concepts to elementary school students, and has worked with local teachers helping them teach mathematics more effectively. Recently, she has taken her interest in people's understanding of numbers into the context of health and is currently working on several research projects in collaboration with other faculty at UNI and Allen College. Her most recent research entails studying adults' comprehension of the numerical information in hospital discharge instructions, with the goal of improving their design so that they are more easily understood by patients.

2008 College of Humanities & Fine Arts Faculty Excellence Award

Dr. Catherine Palczewski

Dr. Palczewski  moved to UNI in 1994 and is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the coach of UNI's debate team. Her areas of expertise include gender studies, rhetoric, and public argument. She teaches courses in political communication, argumentation & debate, social protest, gender in communication, and women's and gender studies. She is co-author (with colleague Victoria DeFrancisco) of Communicating Gender Diversity, which was shortlisted for the International Gender and Language Book Prize of 2008. Her publications appear in a range of journals, including: Quarterly Journal of Speech, Argumentation and Advocacy, NWSA Journal, and Women & Language.

2008 College of Natural Science Dean's Award for Superior Achievement in Research

Dr. Michael Roth

Dr. Roth i­­­­n­­vestigates computational physics (computer modeling) and condensed matter theory (study of liquids and solids), especially the phases and phase transitions of atoms and molecules placed on flat and curved surfaces. He is also interested in fluid dynamical, as well as collision-based models of solar system and planetary ring formation, and also modeling groundwater systems (flow through porous media).

2008 College of Social and Behavioral Science Outstanding Scholarship Award

Dr. Catherine DeSoto

Co-recipient

Dr. DeSoto is broadly interested in how brain function affects behavior. She has done research involving various brain imaging techniques, including ERP's, optical imaging and MRI. Her current research projects involve direct measurement of hormone levels via immunoassay and how this relates to behavioral tendencies as well as investigations into how toxin exposure relates to neurodevelopmental disorders. Her current teaching interests are biological psychology, statistics, and general psychology.

Dr. Ramanathan Sugumaran

Co-recipient

Dr. Sugumaran is an Associate Professor of Geography and Director of the GeoTREE Center at UNI. His main areas of interest are remote sensing, GIS, and spatial decision support systems (SDSS) for natural resources management, environmental planning and public health. He has over 18 years of experience and served as PI or Co-PI on over $6M of research grants funded by NASA, USDA, NOAA, US Fish & Wildlife, DOT, Raytheon Corp., and USGS. His publication record includes more than 20 journal articles, 6 Book Chapters, 21 Conference Proceedings, over 100 conference presentations and is currently writing a book on Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS). Last year, Dr. Sugumaran was also a recipient of the outstanding graduate faculty teaching award at UNI.