Auburn University Faculty Awards
2011 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.
Henry Y. Fadamiro
Associate Professor – Entomology and Plant Pathology
College of Agriculture
PhD — Oxford University
MS, BS — Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria
In 1991, Henry Y. Fadamiro was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University, England, where he obtained his PhD. Fadamiro joined Auburn University in 2003 after working as a researcher at Iowa State University, University of Minnesota, and Minnesota Department of Agriculture. His research interests are in insect behavior, chemical ecology, integrated pest management, and sustainable agriculture. He has published numerous research papers and extension articles, and created one book chapter and four IPM/guides. He has presented his research globally and received approximately $4.5 million in grants. In 2010, he was elected fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and appointed editor for Physiological Entomology. His distinguished awards include the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station Director's Award for Research in 2005, and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System Extramural Competitive Funding award in 2009. Recognized internationally for his work on insect semiochemicals and pest management, Fadamiro was awarded the Entomological Society of America-Southeastern Branch Award for Excellence in Integrated Pest Management.
Narendra Govil
Alumni Professor and Undergraduate Program Officer – Mathematics and Statistics
College of Sciences and Mathematics
PhD — University of Montreal
MS — Aligarh Muslim University, India
Prior to coming to Auburn, Narendra Govil was a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India. He previously served as a visiting member at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India; visiting scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada; and visiting professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Govil has published more than 85 research papers and book chapters, and co-authored/co-edited four books. He has supervised several doctoral and master's students who are currently employed in various academic institutions and in industry. Govil is an editor of Australian Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, associate editor of European Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics and associate editor of Journal of Inequalities and Applications. In addition, he is a member of the editorial boards of International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences, Journal of Inequalities and Special Functions, and other journals. He is a member of the Mathematical Association of America, life member of the Indian Mathematical Society and a member and fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India.
Aleksandr Simonian
Alumni Professor – Mechanical Engineering
Samuel Ginn College of Engineering
PhD — Georgia Tech
BS — Auburn University
Aleksandr Simonian came to Auburn in 2003, and is the founding program director of the Biosensing Program in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems, or CBET, at the National Science Foundation. Simonian began his career in the former Soviet Union where he founded the Biosensor Laboratory at the Yerevan Physics Institute in Armenia. He was elected as a member of the Armenian Academy of Engineers in 1994. That same year, he came to the United States and joined the faculty at Texas A&M as a visiting research professor. At Auburn, Simonian developed a research program that combines his interest in bioanalytical engineering and smart biointerfaces. His work involves the exploration of novel strategies for the development of chemical and biosensors for the detection of chemical and biological hazards. He is frequently cited for his work and has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications. While at Auburn, he was awarded nine patents and close to $3 million in funding. Simonian founded the Biosensing Program which grew to national prominence, and is now one of the biggest programs in CBET, receiving close to 300 proposals annually.
William Trimble
Alumni Professor – History
College of Liberal Arts
PhD, MA, and BA — University of Colorado, Boulder
Bill Trimble, who joined Auburn in 1985, is an Alumni Professor and former chair of the Department of History. He recently authored Hero of the Air: Glenn Curtiss and the Birth of Naval Aviation (Naval Institute Press, May 2010). His book, Jerome C. Hunsaker and the Rise of American Aeronautics, won the 2003 Gardner-Lasser Award presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for the best book in the history of aeronautics over a five-year period. Other books include High Frontier: A History of Aeronautics in Pennsylvania, Wings for the Navy: A History of the Naval Aircraft Factory, Admiral William A. Moffett: Architect of Naval Aviation, and Attack from the Sea: A History of the U.S. Navy’s Seaplane Striking Force. In 2011, he won the Admiral Arthur W. Radford Award for Excellence in Naval Aviation History and Literature from the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. Twice, Trimble was visiting professor at the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, and held the Charles A. Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Daowei Zhang
Alumni Professor – Forest Economics and Policy
School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences
PhD — University of British Columbia
MS — Beijing Forestry University
BS — South-central Forestry University
Daowei Zhang joined Auburn University as an assistant professor in 1994, reaching full professor in 2003. He has authored or co-authored numerous journal articles and books, and translated or co-edited three additional books. He has received $1,750,000 in extramural research grants, including five prestigious USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiatives Competitive Grants. Zhang received the Award in Forest Science by the Society of American Foresters in 2009, a regional forestry extension award in 1996, and a Research Recognition Award and the Director's Research Award from Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station in 2001 and 2002, respectively. He was a panelist in Cross-Border Forum on Softwood Lumber (organized by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) in 2006 and a BC Forum Distinguished Lecturer in Forest Economics and Policy at the University of British Columbia in 2008. In 2010, he testified as an expert witness before the Agriculture and Forestry Committee of the Senate of Canada. He served as an associate editor of Forest Science and Southern Journal of Applied Forestry and was on the board of directors of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation and three USDA AFRI Market and Trade Program Panels.