Honoring Our 2013 Outstanding Research and Scholar Award Recipients

A welcome reception was held in the Roe Green Center Lobby in the Music and Speech Building, followed by an awards ceremony in the Ludwig Recital Hall. A special performance by members of the Cleveland Orchestra and Kent State Associate Professor of Music Donna Lee took place. Cleveland Orchestra musicians included Amy Lee, associate concertmaster; Frank Rosenwein, principal oboe; Charles Bernard, assistant principal cello; and Joanna Patterson, viola. The event was sponsored by Kent State’s Division of Research and Sponsored Programs.

The purpose of the awards program was to recognize all three outstanding faculty members for their notable scholarly contributions that have brought acknowledgement to their fields of study and to Kent State. Of the 18 nominees for the award, these three recipients were selected based on the quality of their research and scholarship and its impact on society.

About Michael Loderstedt

Loderstedt has been a faculty member in the School of Art since 1996, after serving as an adjunct faculty member from 1985-1996. His artwork spans the practices of printmaking, book arts and photography and addresses various contemporary themes. He has a strong international record of exhibition and scholarly, collaborative activity including a series of projects and exchanges he spearheaded with groups in Germany and Belgium. He has had five international solo exhibitions (four in Germany and one in Florence, Italy) and has shown in group exhibitions in Belgium, Netherlands, Korea and the U.K.

In her nomination of Loderstedt, Christine Havice, Ph.D., director of Kent State’s School of Art, stated that he “has distinguished himself especially over the past decade by a record of intense creative activity that he has uniquely blended with teaching his students and service to the arts throughout northeastern Ohio and well beyond.”

About Katherine Rawson

A faculty member in the Department of Psychology since 2004, Rawson’s basic and applied research is focused on text comprehension, memory and metacognition, and applications of cognitive psychology to education. In 2010, she was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and a Kavli Frontiers Fellow Award from the National Academy of Sciences. She has published 41 journal articles and seven chapters, with 11 journal articles published (or “in press”) in the last year alone. She currently serves as associate editor for two major journals in her field, Memory & Cognition and Memory.     

Maria Zaragoza, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Psychology, stated in her nomination, “Katherine Rawson is an exceptionally productive scientist who has already achieved prominence. She consistently publishes in outstanding journals and her research is supported by impressive levels of grant funding.”

About Carrie Schweitzer

A faculty member in the Department of Geology, Kent State University at Stark, since 2000, Schweitzer is an internationally recognized expert in decapod crustaceans. She has published more than 120 technical books and papers since 1997. Her research in paleontology centers on systematics and biogeography. She is co-author on the revision of the Decapoda volume of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, which is the benchmark for research in the field. She has worked diligently to develop new ways of using the morphology of the preservable remains of crabs and other decapods to ferret out phylogenetic relationships. Her skills and abilities have twice won her nominations for the Schuchert Award, given annually to the most promising paleontologist under the age of 40 by the Paleontological Society. She has been co-principal investigator (PI) on grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), including the prestigious Assembling the Tree of Life grant, and the National Geographic Society (NGS). Currently, she is PI on an NSF grant to study diversity patterns in fossil decapods and co-PI on an NGS grant to continue research in China.

In his nomination of Schweitzer, Daniel Holm, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Geology, stated, “Her incredible research productivity is a testimony to her careful field work all over the world, her keen mind, and her diligent, non-stop work ethic.”

For more information about the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs at Kent State, visit www.kent.edu/research.

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