The stature of the University rests on the talents of its faculty. They have won Pulitzer Prizes, and they have received MacArthur "genius" awards. They have served on presidential commissions, and they have orbited the Earth. They have created maps of the universe, and they have revealed the mechanisms of the smallest cells. Their pioneering work has enriched the teaching of our students, and it has shaped and improved the lives of people far from the Grounds.

This year, a number of faculty were singled out by their peers for distinction.

• Dr. Milton Brown, assistant professor of chemistry, won a 2002 Researcher of the Year Award from the Carilion Biomedical Institute. He is currently working to develop compounds that control the growth of blood vessels.
• Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, the University Professor of Applied Science, delivered the 2002 Campbell Memorial Lecture to the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Materials and was also the plenary speaker at the 15th International Congress on Mechanical Engineering.
• Dr. Bruce Schirmer, the Stephen H. Watts Professor of Surgery, was elected president
  of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons.
• Linda Watson, director of the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, was named president of the Medical Library Association.
• Richard Bonnie (Law '69), the John S. Battle Professor of Law and director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy, was awarded the Adam Yarmolinsky Medal by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, as well as the American Psychiatric Association's Special Presidential Commendation. He was chair of a recent study by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine that recommended ways to stem the increase in underage drinking.
• Dr. John Jane, the David D. Weaver Professor and chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery, won the 2003 Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Neurological Surgeons. The society cited his leadership of one of the nation's premier neurosurgery training programs and his excellence in clinical practice.
• Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks, associate professor of law, was elected to the board of directors of Amnesty International USA. She also was named to the board's executive committee and is board liaison to Amnesty's women's rights and children's rights steering committees.
• Jacob Goeree, associate professor of economics, and Jun Julius Zhu, an assistant professor of pharmacology specializing in neuroscience, were among 117 scientists and scholars to receive prestigious Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
• Dr. William Brady (College '84), associate professor of emergency medicine and clinical internal medicine, was awarded the American College of Emergency Physicians' 2003 National Teaching Award.
• Michael Menaker, Commonwealth Professor of Biology and an authority on biological clocks, was recognized as one of Virginia's six Outstanding Scientists of 2003 by Gov. Mark Warner.
• Jeffrey Plank (College '68, Graduate Arts and Sciences '69, '75), associate vice president for research and public service, won the 2002 Independent Book Award for Architecture for The Early Louis Sullivan Building Photographs, a collaboration with the late architect and preservationist Crombie Taylor.
• Dr. Hilary Sanfey, associate professor of surgery, received the 2003 Association for Surgical Education's Outstanding Teacher Award.
• Warren Byrd (Architecture '78), the Merrill D. Peterson Professor of Landscape Architecture, won three national awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects. Mary Hughes (Architecture '87), landscape architect for the University, and Elizabeth Meyer (Architecture '78, '82), associate professor of landscape architecture, were named members of the organization's Council of Fellows.
• Paul Walker, a member of the music faculty and director of the University's Early Music Ensemble, received the William H. Scheide Prize from the American Bach Society for his book Theories of Fugue from the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach.
• Three members of the faculty - Dr. Diane Snustad, the Claude Moore Professor of Geriatrics; Dr. Laurel W. Rice, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology; and Dr. Karen Rheuban, professor of pediatrics-are profiled in "Changing the Face of Medicine," an eighteen-month-long exhibition at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda.

Making an Impact

Outstanding faculty attract exceptional undergraduate and graduate students, and they help their departments recruit promising junior faculty who seek the opportunity to work with distinguished colleagues. Dell Upton, who joined us in 2002 as the David A. Harrison III Professor of Historical Archaeology and Architectural History, is just such an eminent scholar. Formerly on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, he is a leading thinker on American architecture and urbanism. His published works, which include Architecture in the United States, a volume in the Oxford History of Art series, have won such honors as the Society of Architectural Historians' Alice Davis Hitchcock Award and the American Studies Association's John Hope Franklin Award.

A number of faculty have put their scholarship to work in the public sphere. Jack L. Goldsmith III, professor of law, has returned to the University after serving as special counsel to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense and as a faculty member at the University of Chicago. An expert on national security law, he is teaching a course on legal issues surrounding terrorism. In another arena of public importance, Courtney H. Lyder, the new University of Virginia Medical Center Professor of Nursing, is examining the way we treat some of the most vulnerable among us. A former member of the Yale nursing faculty, he has been engaged in a multisite study of the quality of chronic wound care for the elderly. He is also conducting research on the safety of elderly Medicare beneficiaries in U.S. hospitals

New Discoveries, New Directions

The quantity and quality of cutting-edge research under way at the University continues to grow, as has the level of support our scholars and scientists attract from federal, corporate, and philanthropic sources. Funding for our sponsored research in 2002-2003 climbed to a new record of $277 million. A distinctive feature of our faculty is their willingness to break through the barriers that separate the disciplines to pursue innovations in education and scholarship. The University's ability to establish new areas of eminence will depend, in large measure, on the success of these multidisciplinary collaborations.

NanoQuest, the new Nanoscale and Quantum Engineering, Science, and Technology Institute, offers a case in point. A product of our Virginia 2020 planning, NanoQuest encompasses researchers in a wide range of disciplines who are exploring a world measured in nanometers, or billionths of a meter. Among them is Joseph "Pepe" Humphrey, the Nancy and Neal Wade Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, who combines his expertise in fluid mechanics and biology to study minute sensory systems in spiders, moths, and crayfish. These biological sensors offer models that would be invaluable to industry. In a far different nanoscopic realm, Haydn Wadley, the Edgar Starke Professor of Materials Science, is studying vapor-deposition techniques for controlling the way atoms are assembled in nanomagnetic devices. This work could lead to computers of extraordinary power.

Joseph Poon, the William Barten Rogers Professor of Physics and materials scientist Gary Shiflet, William G. Reynolds Professor of Materials Science, are at the forefront of the quest to develop amorphous metals, which are cooled so quickly that crystals do not have a chance to form. Without crystalline boundaries, which are points of weakness, these materials approach their maximum theoretical strength and hardness, they exhibit excellent corrosion resistance, and, because they are essentially frozen liquids, they can be easily molded like plastic. Mr. Shiflet is focusing on developing extremely light, aluminum-based metals for transportation and aerospace, while Mr. Poon is working to discover new kinds of amorphous steel that could be used for naval applications.

Such revolutionary technologies often raise unforeseen ethical conundrums. With a prestigious Career Award from the National Science Foundation, ethicist Rosalyn Berne (College '79, Graduate Arts and Sciences '82, '99) of the Engineering School's Division of Technology, Culture, and Communications has launched a five-year study of the broader social, psychological, and spiritual implications of breakthroughs in nanotechnology. In the international arena, the University continues to build interdisciplinary connections with institutions in South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique. This past year, six South African officials visited the School of Nursing to share experiences and expertise in training, management, and retention issues. The University's Center for Global Health also has launched initiatives in the region, including a pilot study by Dr. Christine Wilder (Medicine '02) on the correlation between environmental change and disease.

Tibet may be remote geographically, but it has never been more accessible to scholars, thanks to the work of David Germano in religious studies. He is the driving force behind the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (www.thdl.org), an ambitious project that represents a new model for the library in the digital age. The archive's digital holdings include research in a range of languages, multimedia learning resources, and creative works on the environments, cultures, and history of Tibet. When fully developed, Mr. Germano's library will comprise not only a wealth of content but also technological tools that help users manipulate and combine these digital resources into new user-defined collections and teaching resources.

The Power of Teaching

Mark Edmundson, a professor of English and a contributing editor for Harper's, celebrates the power of the classroom in his new book, Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference. Published to warm reviews in the New York Times and elsewhere, Professor Edmundson's memoir pays tribute to a high school philosophy teacher in working-class Medford, Massachusetts. Day to day, he played to a tough audience, but for at least one underachiever in his class, it was the beginning of a lifelong love of literature and ideas.