Home • About • Calendar • People • Forum • Archive
May 10, 2007 • Volume 15 Number 17
Four Receive Distinguished Teaching, Research Honors
At the annual Faculty Day event held Monday in Corcoran Commons, University President William P. Leahy, SJ, and Provost and Dean of Faculties Cutberto Garza presented this year's Distinguished Teaching and Research Awards.
Teaching Awards
Assoc. Prof. David Quigley (History): Completing his ninth year on the Boston College faculty, Quigley already has garnered two awards for teaching excellence from Phi Alpha Teta, the undergraduate history honors society. His classes on the American Civil War and Reconstruction in particular have contributed to his long and established record as an outstanding teacher: "commanding in the classroom, rigorous but fair and respectful of students, who lavish praise on his courses," said one colleague in nominating Quigley. In his time at BC, Quigley has supervised 19 honors theses and was instrumental in developing the History Department honors seminar to train and support these promising seniors. He also has played a key role in the Teachers for a New Era program, working as a contact mentor with history majors training to be secondary school teachers and running weekly labs for education students in his American Civilization and Civil War courses. One former student says of Quigley: "[His] classes function as an invitation for students to share [his] passion for his area of study, and are constructed to stimulate work while enticing student investment."
Prof. Ann Burgess (CSON): Burgess, an internationally recognized expert on the treatment of trauma and abuse, is a member of the Connell School of Nursing Community and Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Department. She is credited for her ability to bring students, faculty and researchers together from a wide variety of disciplines, professions and backgrounds. Colleagues cite several examples of Burgess' outstanding qualities as a teacher. They note her engagement of students in developing roles as teachers, advocates and community liaisons, for example, and her use of her extensive research on rape and abuse ó including interviews with both victims and perpetrators ó as well as her use of special skills in communicating subject matter.
"Her patience and caring have supported me through the many tumultuous times that one experiences during [graduate study]," wrote one student. "She is charitable in both her availability and patience, allowing me to reach my highest potential."
Research Award
Prof. June Horowitz (CSON): Horowitz, who joined the Connell School faculty in 1980, focuses her research on family mental health. Her major areas of interest encompass postpartum depression (PPD), childhood bullying and teasing, and couples in interfaith marriages.
Horowitz's contribution to PPD research has been widely hailed. She has conducted studies to determine PPD prevalence rates in the United States and internationally, and demonstrating feasibility of large-scale PPD screening. Horowitz also has developed and tested interventions to promote healthy interaction between depressed mothers and their infants. Her honors include induction as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the Nursing Research Excellence Award from the Massachusetts Association of Nurses.
"Her sustained productivity is reflective of an exemplary academic career, and her excellent research skills will help to expand the discipline of nursing and related health fields as well as contribute to the education of students," wrote a colleague from the University of California-Los Angeles.
Junior Research Award
Asst. Prof. Zhijie Xiao (Economics): A colleague nominating Xiao called him "astonishingly productive" and "one of the top econometric theorists in the world in his age cohort," noting that in the nine years since his doctorate, "he has published more papers, on more different topics, in prominent econometrics journals than most scholars produce in a lifetime."
Xiao specializes in time series econometrics, the study of data in which there is a natural sequential ordering provided by the date of observation, such as interest rates or the consumer price index. He was the winner of Multa Scripsit Award in Econometric Theory (2002) and National Prize of Science and Technology Progress in China (1993).
"His work is so diverse, spanning so many different topics that it is difficult to describe any unifying, distinctive theme, other than that his papers involve a very high level of technical, mathematical sophistication," added the colleague, "and all contain results that are directly useful for both theoretical and applied econometricians." •