CAFNR dean, professor recognized
Mary Simon Leuci, MU Extension community program director, was recognized for completing a two-year fellowship with the Food Systems Leadership Institute in November.
Leuci, assistant dean at the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, is co-founder of MU Extension’s Community Development Academy, a series of courses that explores ideas and develops practical skills for involving and empowering local citizens and leaders in community-based efforts.
Arun Chatterjee, professor emeritus in MU’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, was awarded the distinction of fellow from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest scientific society.
Chatterjee was honored for his contributions to the field of plant bacteriology. Chatterjee is well known for his research on Erwinia carotovora, a bacterium that can cause disease in a wide range of plants.”
MU Alumni Association honors senator, businessman
The Mizzou Alumni Association awarded the 2010 Geyer Public Service Awards to Missouri State Sen. Kurt Schaefer and businessman Sam Hawkins for their work in higher education public policy.
The annual awards are given to an elected official and citizen who exemplify the spirit of former State Rep. Henry S. Geyer, who introduced the bill to establish the University of Missouri in 1839.
Schaefer, elected to the Missouri Senate in 2008, is chair of the Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee. Hawkins is a small business owner in Shelbina, Mo. and serves on the MU Extension statewide council.
Business professor named outstanding educator
Jere Francis, professor in the Trulaske College of Business, was named the 2011 Outstanding Audit Educator by the American Accounting Association. The award is given to an educator who has shown outstanding dedication to auditing research or teaching.
Urton Anderson, chair of the award selection committee, said Francis’ “outstanding contribution to auditing research over the past three decades alone makes him worthy of the award, but he is equally deserving for the outstanding contribution he has made in advising and mentoring the many Ph.D. students with whom he has worked.”
Francis teaches the MU School of Accountancy’s fifth-year capstone course along with doctoral research seminars. He also serves on the editorial board of three auditing journals and is the associate editor at Contemporary Accounting Research.
J-School grad reaches Advertising Hall of Fame
Jack Smith, BA ’62, will be inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Fame on March 30 in New York.
Smith worked for 24 years at world-renowned advertising agency Leo Burnett Company and created countless jingles and TV commercials that have been aired nationally and internationally. He produced three Advertising Age Songs of the Year and has also won Cannes Festival Lions, Clios and many other ADDY, Mobius and Effie awards.
After retiring, Smith was an adjunct professor in the Missouri School of Journalism’s Advertising Department until 2007. Smith created the theme, produced the song and created the music video for the university’s “For All We Call Mizzou” fundraising campaign. He won the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1994.
Endowment honors MU urologist
Stephen Weinstein, MD, has been named the first Gilbert Ross Jr. Distinguished Faculty Scholar in Urology.
Ross served as professor and chief of MU’s Division of Urology from 1977 to 1998. Over the course of his career at MU, Ross has trained more than 70 resident physicians. He continues to oversee their training at Truman Veterans Hospital. Ross recruited Weinstein to the school in 1979, and the two physicians have shared a close working relationship for more than 30 years.
“I’m very honored to receive this endowed position in Dr. Ross’ name. It’s also a great honor to him that many people have donated to this endowment to commemorate the many ways he has helped them,” Weinstein said.
The Gilbert Ross Jr., MD, Distinguished Faculty Scholar in Urology was established in 2010 with gifts that exceeded $250,000. As an endowed faculty position, it will provide perpetual support for advancing education, research and patient care at the MU School of Medicine.
Extension leader named to business board
Max Summers, interim director of University of Missouri Extension’s statewide Business Development Program, has been appointed to the 11-member board of a national business-excellence standards program at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Summers, a former northwest Missouri bank CEO, was named to the Board of Overseers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program March 1 by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. During his three-year term on the board, Summers and his fellow overseers will provide direction to the Baldrige Quality Award program, which is part of the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. The board meets twice a year in Washington, D.C.
Since 1989 Summers has served as the director of the statewide Missouri Small Business & Technology Development Centers, which is headquartered in Columbia as part of MU Extension’s Business Development Program (BDP). Last year Summers was named interim director of the BDP, which oversees the SBTDC and Missouri Procurement Technical Assistance Centers.
Archaeology society to honor two from MU
R. Lee Lyman, professor and chair of the University of Missouri Department of Anthropology, will receive the Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research at the 76th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Sacramento, Calif.
Named after Roald Fryxell, one of the first geoarchaeologists in North America and Lyman’s undergraduate adviser, the award recognizes interdisciplinary excellence by a distinguished scientist whose research has contributed significantly to the field. Lyman is currently working on a collection of mammal remains that were recovered in the 1960s by Fryxell from an archaeological site in southeastern Washington known as Marmes Rockshelter.
W. Raymond Wood, professor emeritus, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the conference in late March. This award is presented annually in recognition of a member who has performed extraordinary service of positive and lasting quality to the Society for American Archaeology or to the profession as a whole.
Wood has been involved with Great Plains and Midwest prehistory for 60 years. The excavation of prehistoric sites in Missouri led Wood to work in North Dakota, which provided him with a fresh interpretation of Mandan prehistory and led to discoveries on the prehistory of the Great Plains.