Recognizing faculty excellence

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Winners of Auburn University’s 2020 Faculty Awards were recognized at a ceremony in the fall.  Among the distinguished recipients were winners of two of the university’s most prestigious research-related awards: the Provost Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring and the Creative Research and Scholarship Award.

Dr. Angela Calderón, an associate professor in the Department of Drug Discovery and Development in the Harrison School of Pharmacy was the winner of the Provost Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring. Dr. Bruce Gladden, the Humana-Germany-Sherman Distinguished Professor in the School of Kinesiology in the College of Education, and Dr. Kenneth W. Noe, the Draughon Professor of Southern History in the Department of History in the College of Liberal Arts, received the Creative Research and Scholarship Award.

Gladden is the recipient in the sciences, medical sciences, engineering and agriculture category. Noe is the recipient in the fine arts, liberal arts, architecture and design, business, social and human sciences category.

Provost Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring

Established in 2012, this award recognizes faculty members who demonstrate a strong commitment to undergraduate research and outstanding services to students and whose efforts support Auburn students interested in careers in research and creative work.

Dr. Angela Calderón received her Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from the University of Panama, Panama City, Republic of Panama; a Master of Science in pharmacognosy from the University of Illinois at Chicago; and doctorate Ph.D. degree in pharmacognosy from the University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. She joined the Auburn faculty in 2008.

Calderón specializes in natural drug products research, specifically applications of mass spectrometry to natural products drug discovery for tuberculosis and malaria and quality and safety assessment of botanical dietary supplements. She is the first researcher to develop a mass spectrometry based assay to discover antimalarial and antitubercular compounds. Over the past nine years, she has authored 32 publications, received one U.S patent and authored two book chapters. In the classroom, she teaches graduate courses in separation science and mass spectrometry.

“Undergraduate research mentoring is an integral part of the success of my research program,” Calderón said. “My laboratory focuses on searching for antimicrobial compounds from a bacterial soil metagenomics library and plants and the quality and safety of botanical dietary supplements. Auburn's Provost Award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring recognizes my contribution to educating the next generation of natural products researchers with unique skills in mass spectrometry.”

Creative Research and Scholarship Award

The Creative Research and Scholarship Award recognizes faculty members who have distinguished themselves through research, scholarly works and creative contributions. This award recognizes two categories: sciences, medical sciences, engineering and agriculture; and fine arts, liberal arts, architecture and design, business and social and human sciences.

Dr. Bruce Gladden is the director of the Muscle Physiology Laboratory in the School of Kinesiology. His research interests include two major tracks of investigation within the overall area of bioenergetics and regulation of metabolism during exercise: 1) the role of lactate in metabolism, and 2) how the energy systems make the transition from resting to exercise conditions.

The lab has a 25-year history in the school at Auburn. Its overall emphasis is the regulation of metabolism during exercise. Studies are typically interpreted in the context of human physiology and biochemistry. Gladden teaches in the areas of exercise physiology and biochemistry of exercise. His academic history includes: Post doctoral fellow in physiology, University of Florida; Ph.D.  in zoology, University of Tennessee; Bachelor of Science, in zoology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

“I was very surprised and excited to receive this award,” Gladden said. “It always provides great encouragement when you receive this type of recognition from your peers. Certainly in my case, this award is the result of wonderful collaborations with my doctoral students and faculty colleagues at Auburn, as well as those at other universities in the United States and around the world. I owe all of them a great debt of gratitude.”

Dr. Kenneth Noe is a native of Virginia and an expert in American Civil War history. Noe received his bachelor’s from Emory & Henry College; a Master of Arts degree from Virginia Tech University; an MSLS from the University of Kentucky and his Ph.D.  from the University of Illinois. He then taught at West Georgia College for 10 years before coming to Auburn in 2000. His major teaching and research areas are the American Civil War and Appalachian history.

Noe is a frequent speaker on the Civil War Round Table circuit and is the author or editor of  eight books on the subject. He was the 2008-09 president of the Alabama Historical Association. He also served as a consultant to the NBC/TLC series, Who Do You Think You Are?. He teaches classes in honors world history II; Appalachian history; Civil War and reconstruction; and conducts a graduate seminar in Civil War and Reconstruction.

“I'm really grateful to the Creative Research and Scholarship Award committee for recognizing my contributions to scholarship at Auburn over the last two decades,” Noe said. “The award will help me build upon research about the American coast that I was unable to use in my latest book. I look forward to continuing my research and writing about the environmental history of the American Civil War during my upcoming retirement.”