Auburn University Faculty Awards
Alumni Professors
Twenty-five, five-year non-renewable Alumni Professorships are sponsored by the Auburn Alumni Association. The Alumni Writer-in-Residence, a creative writer from the English faculty, is the only ongoing appointment. The Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost calls for nominations from department heads through deans. The awards are presented on the basis of research, publishing and teaching.
Frank Bartol
Adjunct Professor - Animal Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine
An architect of the Auburn University Cellular and Molecular Biosciences program, Frank F. Bartol joined the Auburn University faculty in 1983. He served as the program's first director from 2001 until his appointment as associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Veterinary Medicine in July 2009. Bartol received the bachelor of science degree from Virginia Tech, masters and doctorate degrees from the University of Florida through the Interdisciplinary Reproductive Biology program, and advanced training in molecular biology in the Center for Animal Biotechnology at Texas A&M University. Bartol's research focuses on factors affecting development and function of the female reproductive tract, with emphasis on reproductive health in domestic ungulate species. He has received grants from the USDA and NSF, in addition to those from private and international agencies. Notable interdisciplinary advances realized through his research include development of the "uterine gland knockout" model and promulgation of the "lactocrine hypothesis" for maternal programming of neonatal somatic tissues. In 2005, Bartol was named "Donald Henry Barron Lecturer" by the UF-IRB program "for research and scholarly activities in the field of reproductive biology." Recognized internationally as an outspoken advocate of the responsible use of animals in research and education, Bartol has also developed and implemented unique educational programs to engage both high school and undergraduate students in life science research.
Curtis Jolly
Professor - Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology
College of Agriculture
Curtis Jolly was selected as one of the top ten black agricultural economists by the American Agricultural Economics Society. He received his bachelor of science from Tuskegee University, masters in agricultural economics from Auburn University, and his doctorate in agricultural economics from Louisiana State University. He has more than 25 years experience in the Caribbean and Africa. He was honored by the Institute of Plant Genetic Resources in Sadovo, Bulgaria, for his contribution to the marketing of peanuts in that country. Jolly received The United Nations Association-USA Greater Birmingham Chapter International Educator Award in 2007, and the Auburn Alumni Outstanding Minority Achievement Award in 2008. Auburn, he represented the university for a United States Agency International Development project in the Department of Farming Systems and Technology Transfer at the Institut Senegalais de Recherche Agricoles in Francophone, Africa. He also served as Farming Systems Economist on a similar project at the Institut d'Economie Rurale in Mali. He has published 80 scientific, referred articles, eight book chapters, and one text book. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Auburn University Credit Union, overseas representative of the Caribbean Agricultural Economics Society, and member of the American Agricultural Economics Association.
Mary Mendonca
Alumni Professor - Biological Sciences
College of Sciences and Mathematics
Mary Mendonca was raised in the projects of Newark, N.J., and attended Rutgers University-Newark where she was inspired by a great teacher and mentor to pursue basic research in biology. She received a master of science degree from the University of Central Florida where her research interest was on green sea turtle ecology in the lagoons surrounding the Kennedy Space Center, and her doctorate from the University of California-Berkeley for research in reproductive endocrinology of reptiles. She also earned two post-doctoral fellowships, one at the University of Western Australia studying the physiological ecology of desert lizards, the other at the University of Texas-Austin for research on the neuroendocrinology of reproductive behavior in snakes. Mendonca came to Auburn 17 years ago and established a laboratory to research the reproductive and stress physiology and ecoimmunology of a number of model organisms (bats, birds, reptiles, and amphibians). She teaches in Human Anatomy and Physiology in the Department of Biology as well as the Human Odyssey program in the Honors College. More than 190 undergraduates have conducted biological research in her laboratory, with almost half going on to professional or graduate schools.
Subhash Sinha
Professor - Mechanical Engineering
Samuel Ginn College of Engineering
Subhash C. Sinha serves as a Philpott-WestPoint Stevens Distinguished Professor in the College of Engineering at Auburn, which he joined in 1987. This year, Sinha will receive the N. O. Myklestad Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which is given to an individual in recognition of a major innovative contribution to vibration engineering. Prior to joining Auburn, he was a senior research engineer at Ford Motor Company and a visiting professor at Institut National Sciences Appliquées in Lyon, France. In 2007-08, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Mauritius. For more than 30 years, Sinha has developed new innovative techniques for the dynamic analysis of systems, such as slider-crank mechanisms, helicopter blades, rotor bearing systems, and satellites. He has developed super-efficient techniques for linear/nonlinear systems with time-periodic coefficients. These developments constitute a new set of analytical, symbolic, and numerical tools suitable for analyses and solving practical engineering problems. His techniques are being employed around the world, and his research has been supported by the Natonal Science Foundation, Army Research Office, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, NASA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and private industries. Currently, he serves as the founding editor for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics. He has received numerous awards for his exemplary service to the ASME and is a Fellow of ASME and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Wei Wang
Associate Professor - Industrial Design
College of Architecture, Design and Construction
Wei Wang has been teaching graphic design and interactive design courses at Auburn University since 1999. He has a bachelor of arts degree in industrial design at Shenzen University in China and a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic design at Utah State University. He received a master of fine arts degree at Louisiana Tech University. Wang's main areas of research are corporate identity, design strategy, interface design, and interactive design. He has worked as design consultant for many clients in the United States and overseas, including Coca-Cola, Volkswagen, McDonald's, Bank of Tennessee, DesignAlabama, NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the American Architectural Foundation. His design work has been published inGlobal Corporate Identity 2, and he is also the recipient of interactive design awards including a Gold Addy Award and Best of Show: Interactive from the Montgomery Advertising Federation, the 2005 Horizon International Interactive Design Award, 2007 Summit International Creative Awards, 38th Annual University and College Designers Association Design Award, and the most recent, a 2008 Interactive Media Award. He gave a paper presentation at the Fifth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville.
Mark Steltenpohl
Professor - Geology and Geography
College of Sciences and Mathematics
Mark Steltenpohl's areas of expertise include plate tectonics and the evolution of mountain systems, dynamics of Earth's continents, and he is an authority on the evolution of the geology of the Piedmont Region of Georgia and Alabama. He earned his undergraduate and master of science degrees from the University of Alabama and his doctorate in structure and tectonics from the University of North Carolina. Steltenpohl began his tenure with Auburn University in 1989 as an assistant professor and was the recipient of the Auburn University Graduate Mentoring Award for 2008-09, the College of Sciences and Mathematics Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2006-07, and the Sigma Xi Alumni Research Award in 2003. Steltenpohl collaborated on research programs with the Universities of Oslo and Tromsø (Norway), Plymouth (U.K.), and the Polish Geological Survey on the tectonic evolution of segments of the Appalachian, Caledonian, and Hercynian mountain chains, resulting in exchanges of visits by faculty and field research by 25 of his Auburn students. His published research includes 33 professional journal articles, 35 book chapters, six fieldtrip guidebooks, seven geological survey bulletins, 12 geological maps, and 119 papers/abstracts. He has also presented published papers/abstracts at meetings of the International Geologic Congress, Geological Society of America, International Geologic Correlation Project, International Conference on Basement Tectonics, Norsk Geologisk Forening, and Tectonics Study Group of the Royal Geological Society of London.