PRESIDENT’S DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
Dave Eubanks 
College Park Scholars
As associate director of a program that serves more than 20% of every incoming class, Dave Eubanks has combined steady academic leadership, know-how with data and systems, and administrative talent to benefit thousands of Terps.
He joined the nationally acclaimed living-learning program College Park Scholars in 2010, coordinating its academic affairs and curriculum development. He performs the delicate balancing act of enhancing the quality of the overall Scholars experience while still honoring the unique goals of each of its 13 subprograms.  
“Dave works tirelessly to assure that the learning side of our living-learning program is academically rich yet attuned to the needs of first- and second-year students,” says Marilee Lindemann, executive director of College Park Scholars.
Eubanks earned his bachelor’s degree at Rhodes College and his master’s and doctoral degrees at UMD. Before beginning his role with College Park Scholars, he worked for four years as assistant director of the university’s Center for Teaching Excellence.
He has overseen two successful comprehensive Scholars reviews: in 2017, when the Office of Undergraduate Studies transitioned to more in-depth analyses of living-learning programs, and in 2022, when UMD launched its Fearlessly Forward strategic plan.
Eubanks also helped launch a new Scholars program, Data Justice, and relaunch the program formerly known as CIVICUS, now called Civic Engagement for Social Good.
“The expansion of Scholars into these new areas of high student interest could never have happened—and happened so smoothly—without Dave’s ingenuity and dexterity,” says William A. Cohen, associate provost and dean for undergraduate studies.
In addition, Eubanks has served on several university committees, including chairing the Campus Assessment Working Group’s Retention and Completion subcommittee for eight years.
“He is essential infrastructure: soft-spoken, compassionate, unobtrusive, a sounding board, always there when you need him,” says David Tomblin, director of the Science, Technology and Society Scholars Program.


PRESIDENT’S DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
Randy Malitzki
Department of Residential Facilities
Some of the most recognizable buildings on campus couldn’t keep their doors open without Randy Malitzki’s expertise and reliability. As a residential facilities supervisor, he oversees a team that performs repairs and preventative maintenance for the 21 red-brick, white-columned chapter houses across Fraternity Row and the Graham Cracker.
“Randy’s knowledge of these old, iconic buildings is vast and invaluable,” says Heidi Biffl, senior coordinator of Greek properties. “He is a patient teacher and enthusiastic about explaining any situation we are faced with.”
His scope extends to the Leonardtown community, where he and his team are responsible for a wide range of physical infrastructure, such as plumbing fixtures, kitchen equipment, and door and window hardware.
“Randy’s technical proficiency and attention to detail are evident, always striving for excellence while minimizing disruptions to residents’ home away from home,” says Dan McKelvy, senior manager of facilities maintenance. Malitzki responds quickly to calls and emails, making him a go-to resource for everyone from residents to live-in staff and housekeepers whenever there is a problem in a building. 
In addition, he’s a valuable mentor to younger team members—student workers even call him “Dad”—who creates a collaborative environment where people feel empowered to contribute to the best of their abilities. “He is always willing to offer guidance, advice and support, helping others to develop their skills and advance their careers,” says John Blackwood, interim director of Residential Facilities.
Over his last 15 years at UMD, Malitzki’s commitment to safety has been a significant factor in minimizing workplace accidents and injuries, says Blackwood. “From being the point person on set-up for the safety shoe truck, to making sure I had a pair of gloves to carry light bulbs across the shop, he does not miss a beat.”


PRESIDENT’S DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
Dennis Passarella-George 
Department of Resident Life
Director of Resident Life Dennis Passarella-George is one of UMD’s most familiar faces, a fixture at sporting events, town halls and welcome gatherings, beloved by students for his wit, empathy and deep focus on their well-being. 
Passarella-George earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and Spanish from Franklin & Marshall College and a master’s degree in college student personnel from UMD. Joining UMD’s staff in 1994 as a graduate resident director—his first professional job—Passarella-George ascended quickly within the Department of Resident Life. Since 2021, he has overseen 12,500 students across 39 university-owned residence halls, 14 residential public-private partnerships and nearly 100 professional and graduate staff.
Benefiting from his leadership, UMD established mixed-gender and gender-inclusive living options, new emergency management procedures, new construction and renovation and deeper public-private partnerships with housing collaborators. He has also been instrumental in shaping UMD’s mental health protocols, living-learning partnerships and anti-hate and -bias campaigns.
“For over 30 years, Dennis has been a pillar of strength, innovation, collaboration and unwavering care for our students, staff and the University of Maryland community,” says Tracy Kiras, Division of Student Affairs director of strategic communications and marketing. “To Dennis, this work is more than a job—it’s a calling.”
Espousing the belief that student housing goes well beyond providing a place to live, Passarella-George has helped students through tragedy, championed inclusion initiatives and provided a steady hand during the COVID pandemic. He won the Department of Resident Life Pillar of Excellence Award in 2008 and the Division of Student Affairs Outstanding Service Award in 2019.
“Dennis is one of the fiercest student advocates on campus, balancing a sharp eye for detail with a genuine care for the well-being of every individual he encounters,” says Laura Tan, senior associate director for engagement, services and programs for the Department of Resident Life.


PRESIDENT’S DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
Karen Petroff
Facilities Management

From the two-century-old post oak near the Architecture Building to the newly planted saplings outside Thurgood Marshall Hall, Karen Petroff knows just about every tree on campus. 
Her passion for horticulture is evident throughout her work as director of landscape and special services. Over the past 20 years, she’s helped establish and lead the Campus Arboretum and Botanical Garden, lent her expertise to long-term construction plans and capital projects, grown outreach and volunteer programs, and more. 
“Karen has been instrumental in transforming our verdant campus into an instrument that reflects our university mission for teaching, research and service,” says William Mallari, retired assistant director of campus development and facilities planning. 
Committed to sustainability, Petroff has organized the university’s Arbor Day celebrations, incorporated more native species into the landscape and introduced technologies to reduce UMD’s environmental footprint. Under her leadership, the university has been recognized as a Tree Campus Higher Education by the Arbor Day Foundation since 2008.  
“Karen is a model staff member. … Our campus landscape, tree collection and Arboretum are prize possessions that give our campus a sense of beauty and place,” says Scott Lupin, associate director of the Department of Environmental Safety, Sustainability and Risk. 
Petroff also teaches in the Department of Plant Sciences and Landscape Architecture, using the university grounds as a classroom and consistently receiving appreciative student evaluations. 
Informally, she serves as a horticultural resource across campus, “as her enthusiasm for her work is infectious and her knowledge is remarkable,” say Heidi Biffl, senior coordinator in the Department of Residential Facilities, and Meg Smolinski, coordinator of outreach and education for the Arboretum.
Beyond UMD, Petroff shares her knowledge of trees at the local, state, national and international levels through partnerships and associations. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University.
“If there is an area on campus that is inviting and shaded by trees, you can be sure that Karen had a hand in making it that way,” say Biffl and Smolinski.


PRESIDENT’S DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
Alan Sactor 
Department of Environmental Safety, Sustainability and Risk
For 40 years, Alan Sactor has embraced the responsibility of keeping the UMD community safe, starting as a fire protection specialist in 1985 before serving for the past two decades as the university fire marshal and assistant director for the Department of Environmental Safety, Sustainability and Risk.
Sactor established UMD’s Office of Emergency Management and built the fire marshal program from a one-man operation to a 15-employee organization with permanent evening shifts; his team inspects facilities, reviews construction plans, conducts fire investigations and more. Sactor brought fire sprinkler protection to all residential facilities, initiated the campuswide fire alarm monitoring system and designed the automatic external defibrillator program. A tireless volunteer, Sactor engages with the community at local schools and events like Good Neighbor Day and Maryland Day. 
“Alan has dedicated his professional career to the university,” says Robert Ryan, retired public services director for the city of College Park. “His work has been essential to the university’s reputation as a safer campus.”
Sactor serves as president for the national nonprofit Center for Campus Fire Safety and assistant state fire marshal for UMD. During his previous chairmanship of the Maryland State Fire Marshals Committee, he successfully advocated for bills that have “saved lives throughout the state of Maryland,” says retired Maryland State Fire Marshal Brian S. Geraci. 
Sactor earned an associate’s degree in fire science at Montgomery College, a bachelor’s in biology from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in environmental management from UMD Global Campus. Prior to his UMD appointment he served as a firefighter and paramedic for the Hillandale, Md., Volunteer Fire Department, where he received a commendation for rescuing a UMD student from a burning off-campus apartment.
“Alan is an exceptional human being who is highly respected by his peers and colleagues,” says Gloria Aparicio Blackwell, director of community engagement. “His contributions to the profession and the community are unparalleled.”


PRESIDENT’S DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
Carolyn Schupbach
College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Over more than 30 years at the University of Maryland, Carolyn Schupbach has contributed immeasurably to the efficient functioning and overall success of not just her college, but the institution as a whole.
As executive director of budget and finance in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, she tracks every detail of the multimillion-dollar state-allocated budget from department to department and year to year. 
“I am regularly amazed by Carolyn,” says Dean Susan M. Rivera. “Her ability to recall almost literally every detail of every financial transaction that BSOS has engaged in over the years, and find the supporting documentation for any such transaction in literally under a minute, astounds us time and again.”
The expertise and leadership of Schupbach, a 1987 UMD graduate, have led colleagues across campus to consult her for major software adoptions. She has been instrumental in the university’s recent switch to Workday, reinforcing the process changes necessary for a successful transition and serving as a critical bridge between central offices and academic units.
Other examples of her influence include important work on the Priority BA software tool, the BSOS Smart Center, PTK policy business practice and fringe rate implementation.
“Carolyn has consistently identified needs and found innovative ways to meet them, whether through a piece of software, organizational change or process improvement,” says Kimberly J. Schmidt, assistant dean for finance and administration in UMD’s School of Public Health.
Throughout this work, Schupbach has developed personal relationships across campus and served as a mentor and adviser to many colleagues.
“What sets Carolyn apart is not only the depth of her knowledge but the spirit with which she shares it,” says Chad Nazworth, assistant director of finance in the Office of the Provost. “She provides guidance generously, never limiting her insight to her home college.”


The Sharon A. La Voy Data Impact Award
Kristi Hall
College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Among her peers who wrangle institutional data, Kristi Hall stands out for her big-picture thinking, research prowess and relentless drive to improve the student experience.
As the associate director of undergraduate education in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences for the past 11 years, she is a trusted expert on data collection and analysis for the dean, department chairs, program directors, other schools and colleges, and beyond. 
“One of the strengths that I really value about Kristi is that she always makes the time to fully understand a question or problem before she starts searching for an answer or a data set to inform an answer,” says Assistant Dean Katherine Ford Russell. “’What are you wanting to learn from the data? What question are we really asking? Might this certain co-variable help you understand this better?’”
Hall provides guidance on course enrollment planning, learning outcome assessments, and program development and evaluation; Naz Salahuddin, principal lecturer and director of undergraduate studies in psychology, recalls how Hall’s assessment of the success of transfer psychology undergrads helped her secure grants to launch—and expand—a first-year-to-Ph.D. pipeline program for students from historically excluded backgrounds.
“Even while providing support to so many, Kristi is consistently patient, present and available when her expertise is requested,” Salahuddin says. “In seven years, Kristi has never once made me feel as though she did not have time to help think through a question or pull data on short notice.”
Hall earned a B.S. in biology and chemistry from Salisbury University, an M.S. in psychology from Loyola College of Maryland and a Ph.D. in science education from UMD in 2013, then began her career on campus. 
She serves on the senior staff of the associate dean, supervises the BSOS undergraduate communications and recruitment coordinator, chairs the college’s Programs, Curricula and Courses Committee, represents BSOS on the Vice President’s Advisory Committee, and takes on many other projects and responsibilities “with a cheerful gusto of someone who is always eager to learn and grow at every opportunity,” Russell says.


Provost’s Excellence Award for
Professional Track Faculty
Gregory Bucher (Teaching)
Department of Classics

As a principal lecturer in the Department of Classics, Gregory Bucher has garnered admiration for his ability to effectively teach difficult languages without sacrificing academic rigor. 
The bulk of his courses focus on classical Latin and ancient Greek, where Bucher is a “phenomenal presence in the classroom with a precious devotion to his students,” says Eric Adler, professor and department chair.  Yet he “never cuts corners in his classes, ably improving the abilities of our undergraduate and graduate students alike.” 
He’s committed to the success of the department’s language program, leading the development of a successful new course in Latin prose composition to improve first-year master’s students’ skills and teaching additional classes that range from beginning Greek to graduate seminars on the art and culture of Augustan Rome. 
Bucher earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and classical studies from the University of California, San Diego, and a Ph.D. in classical philology at Brown University. He came to Maryland in 2016, after 15 years at Creighton University. 
“During the years when my office was across the hall from Bucher’s, he received more visits than any other colleague I have known in recent years,” says Lillian E. Doherty, professor emerita of classics. “Taken together with his high standards, the fairness of his grading and the wide range of courses he has taught, this success in advising is a further proof of his excellence as a teacher and of the important influence he has had on his students.” 
Bucher is known for challenging advanced students while keeping courses accessible for those less experienced. He is a model to graduate students, who are inspired by his clarity, rigor, patience and kindness, while undergraduates say he is knowledgeable and approachable and makes learning fun. 
“He treats his students as peers, equals and friends; no question is too ‘dumb,’ and the student-teacher distance is not at all as stark as it can be in other classes,” says one undergraduate. “His coherent explanations of difficult concepts…are impressive and immensely informative; the way he weaves historical and linguistic context into his lecturing makes the cultural and historical component of language learning come alive.”


Provost’s Excellence Award for
Professional Track Faculty
Robert Chiles (Teaching)
Department of History
For more than a decade, Robert Chiles has combined expertise, enthusiasm and innovative teaching methods to engage thousands of students in the intricacies of U.S. history.
The senior lecturer has taught an array of popular courses covering immigration and ethnicity, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the New Deal and more. His bread-and-butter class, “Interpreting United States History: From 1865 to the Present,” is regularly overbooked, with reviews lauding the intriguing lectures that invite frequent student participation. 
In addition, Chiles leads several University Honors classes, with topics ranging from American politics to how diverse waves of immigration have transformed culture.
“Dr. Chiles’ classroom persona is the stuff of legend on this campus,” say Stephan Blatti, director of University Honors, and Christine Jones, associate director of academic and faculty affairs. “He is the rare instructor who nets the same superlative level of student praise no matter what the course, the circumstances or how long he has been teaching the syllabus.”
Chiles received his bachelor’s degree from Towson University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from UMD. He joined the Department of History’s faculty after completing his Ph.D. in 2012.
He was a 2016 Elevate Fellow for the Teaching and Learning Transformation Center, and has also provided over a dozen undergraduates with opportunities to earn pedagogical experience through the Academic Peer Mentors program.
In 2023, Chiles won the Donna B. Hamilton Award for Teaching Excellence in General Education. 
“Rob not only cares about teaching deeply, but he is also constantly updating his professional skills,” says Thomas Zeller, professor of history at UMD.
Beyond the classroom, Chiles’ research contributions include an award-winning monograph, four journal articles and two book chapters on New York Gov. Al Smith. He has served as co-editor of New York History since 2019, and as a member of the editorial board of the Hudson River Valley Review since 2021. In 2024, he was elected to the New York Academy of History.
He has maintained a busy conference and lecture schedule, growing into “an esteemed member of his professional community,” says Ahmet T. Karamustafa, professor and department chair.


Provost’s Excellence Award for
Professional Track Faculty 
Sarah Dammeyer (Service)
Department of English
Embodying exemplary leadership, strategic thinking and passion for inclusive excellence, Senior Lecturer Sarah Dammeyer is a relentless advocate for fellow professional-track faculty, her own students and those across the university.
She earned two bachelor’s degrees and an M.A. in English language and literature at UMD, where she has taught in the department’s Academic and Professional Writing Program since 2009. Her courses span technical writing, science communication, narrative nonfiction, writing pedagogy and literature; colleagues call her a gifted instructor. 
For the last three years, Dammeyer was the Professional Writing Program’s (PWP) faculty fellow, supporting its 90 professional-track teaching instructors through mentoring, designing professional development experiences and encouraging them in their curriculum development projects. 
“She has taken on this work with deep empathy and care for the faculty she serves, and in everything she does, she aims to enhance PTK faculty’s sense of dignity and respect,” says the program’s director, Associate Professor Scott Wible.
After the pandemic, Dammeyer created pre-semester events for PWP faculty that helped them to reconnect with colleagues in fun and invigorating ways, and she offered opportunities for PWP faculty to deliver workshops to each other. Moreover, she organized an event last year in College Park for writing program administrators from across the DMV, with a bonus meetup four months later to share updates and to develop projects together. 
Most recently, Dammeyer collaborated with colleagues in the PWP and College of Education to garner a $50,000 TLTC Grant to launch the Disability Resource and Technology Hub for Writing Instructors. The hub offers activities and mentoring to reduce barriers for students with disabilities, while providing instructors with tools to lead anti-ableist classrooms. 
As further evidence of her commitment to champion policies and initiatives that support UMD’s mission, she served for years on the University Senate’s Executive Committee, balancing a range of voices and synthesizing diverse perspectives into actionable recommendations. She is now chair of the full Senate. 
“Sarah’s leadership has strengthened our institution,” says Senate Director Veronica Marin, “setting a standard for excellence in service that inspires her colleagues and benefits the university as a whole.”


Provost’s Excellence Award for
Professional Track Faculty 
Regina Haag (Service)
School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
By taking on an important array of roles in her department and helping students discover connections between STEM fields and the humanities, Regina Haag has made profound contributions to the growth and strength of the University of Maryland’s German studies program.
Since joining the faculty in 2015, Haag, now an associate clinical professor, has served as an instructor, teaching assistant supervisor and coordinator, undergraduate program director, and undergraduate academic adviser.
While wearing these many hats, she has cultivated relationships with the A. James Clark School of Engineering and organized information sessions to successfully revive the German-engineering dual-degree program. Similar campus outreach has led to increased German-computer science and German-environmental science double majors.
Such efforts “are crucial to the flourishing of our comparatively small program,” says Hester Baer, professor of German and cinema and media studies at UMD. “However, it is not the sheer number of students she has attracted to the major, but the extra, intangible spirit she brings to her work with each and every one of them that makes Regina truly exceptional.”
Haag received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County before earning her Ph.D. in German cultural studies at UMD.
She’s deeply committed to her students’ success, dedicating her evenings, weekends and summer breaks to meeting with them individually in person, online or over the phone to fit their schedules. She has developed online versions of the department’s intensive introductory language sequence, created a popular business German course and is helping to pilot “microcourses,” one-credit classes that students can combine for elective credit.
That’s all on top of her work as D.C. Metro chapter president for the American Association of Teachers of German, which strives to expand the study of German beyond UMD by supporting teachers and students at the elementary, middle and high school levels.
“She goes above and beyond what is expected of an academic adviser, and she exemplifies passion and commitment to the field,” says Julie Koser, associate professor of German studies and head of the department. 


Provost’s Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty 
Michael Humber (Research)
Department of Geographical Sciences
Michael Humber is internationally recognized for his research using satellite remote sensing technology to improve the precision of agricultural monitoring systems, leading to increased food security, particularly in developing countries.
Humber serves as data lead and markets and supply chains lead for the UMD-based NASA Harvest consortium on global agriculture, as well as deputy director and data lead for the NASA Acres consortium on domestic agriculture. He helped lead development of the international Food Trade Dependence Index in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which reveals critical vulnerabilities in agricultural trade and provides insights for policymakers.
“His deep understanding of global and regional food security issues has been instrumental in shaping research that addresses the complex challenges faced by agricultural systems worldwide,” says Soonho Kim, senior data manager for IFPRI.
Humber frequently engages with American farmers to codevelop information services based on remote sensing, while addressing issues related to data privacy and intellectual property that are often roadblocks to engaging farmers in research. Among other projects, he has spearheaded the integration of satellite data to map crop production in real time and developed platforms that enable more accurate models for yield production. 
As the lead scientist for climate smart agriculture with UMD’s Climate Resilience Network as well as a member of the UMD-NASA Fire Science Team, Humber has produced important findings beyond agriculture. His methods enabled faster, data-driven responses to wildfires globally, with recent efforts focused on delivering high resolution data across North America, while his accuracy assessment methodology for NASA’s global “burned area” product has contributed to the implementation of best practices by the international Committee on Earth Observation Satellites Working Group on Calibration and Validation, representing space agencies across the globe.
Humber is a “research superstar” who “provided the scientific underpinning to remote sensing of active fires,” says Distinguished University Professor of geographical sciences Chris Justice.
On campus, Humber has taught two dozen classes, advised 18 master’s students and mentored 11 junior research faculty members, “a remarkable and exemplary record for an associate research professor,” says Justice.
Humber received a bachelor’s degree in geography, master’s in geospatial information sciences and Ph.D. in geographical sciences from UMD.


Provost’s Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty 
Yunho Hwang (Research)
Department of Mechanical Engineering
In three decades at UMD, mechanical engineering Research Professor Yunho Hwang has become a global leader in energy-efficient refrigeration, air conditioning and heat exchange systems. His impressive body of work “has established UMD at the forefront of both fundamental and applied research that improves lives, saves cost and ensures a sustainable future,” say Harry Dankowicz, professor and chair of UMD’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Eleonora Tubaldi, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.
Hwang has advanced game-changing technologies for alternative cooling and renewable energy, and his novel concepts have led to significant performance improvements for high-temperature carbon dioxide refrigeration cycles. The owner of 21 patents, Hwang has authored 172 journal manuscripts and 184 conference papers cited more than 12,200 times. The World Economic Forum in 2024 recognized the elastocaloric cooling system he and collaborators designed as one of the top 10 breakthrough technologies of the year.
Hwang oversees the Daikin Energy Innovation Lab, which seeks to reduce global carbon emissions by maximizing energy efficiency and innovating new energy conversion technologies. He also launched UMD’s Consortium for Energy Efficiency and Heat Pumps, which collaborates with industry leaders in energy conversion components and systems, and has advised student teams to first-place finishes in national and international design competitions.
“With his passion for saving the environment while providing thermal safety to all, he successfully conducted numerous novel research (projects) while educating next-generation engineers and scientists,” says Kashif Nawaz, section head of building technologies research for Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Hwang is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, and in 2023 received the International Institute of Refrigeration’s quadrennial Gustav Lorentzen Medal for outstanding and original achievements. He’s also a winner of the Peter Ritter von Rittinger International Heat Pump Award, the highest award in the global field, and the Wilbur T. Pentzer Achievement and Leadership Award from the U.S. National Committee of the International Institute of Refrigeration. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Korea University and a master’s degree and doctorate in mechanical engineering from UMD.


Provost’s Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty 
Loren Jones (Research)
Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership
Associate Clinical Professor Loren Jones’ extensive publication record has expanded understanding of educational equity for multilingual learners in public schools while preparing undergraduate and graduate students to become effective teachers. 
“With approximately 5 million emergent bilinguals in K-12 schools facing systemic inequities and opportunity gaps, Jones’ work is of paramount importance,” says Nihat Polat, professor and chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership. “It not only addresses pressing issues but also provides valuable pedagogical insights for delivering high-quality instruction to such diverse student populations.”
In 2023, Jones co-wrote the book “Teaching Young Multilingual Learners: Key Issues and New Insights,” published by Cambridge University Press. In addition, she has authored or co-authored 14 book chapters and 11 peer-refereed articles, with additional ones under review—remarkable productivity for someone whose primary role is not research. 
Jones “goes significantly above and beyond the scholarship expectations for professional track faculty through her stellar publication record, her numerous presentations at prestigious conferences in our field, her exceptional participation in funded work, both internal and external, and her reviewer contributions for important national and international conferences,” says Megan Madigan Peercy, professor of teacher education and educational development, and applied linguistics and language education.
In addition, Jones has received multiple internal grants, including three Teaching and Learning Grants and an inaugural Do Good Grant. She has twice been awarded the College of Education’s Excellence in Scholarship for Professional Track Faculty.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of South Florida, an M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction from the University of South Florida, and a Ph.D. in teaching and learning from the University of Miami. 
She came directly to UMD in 2018, and since 2023 has also served as the department’s associate chair, a role in which she oversees all initial certification teacher and leader participation programs, all general education course offerings, all advanced/post-baccalaureate offerings and all M.Ed. programs. 
Jones is currently advising two doctoral students and serves as primary adviser for numerous master’s students.


Provost’s Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty
Alison Jovanovic (Service)
Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership
Working for over a decade with student teachers as well as public school social studies faculty and administrators, Alison Jovanovic has proven herself to be deeply dedicated to the success of College of Education students.
“(Jovanovic’s) invaluable leadership has played a crucial role in addressing the complexities surrounding teacher preparation…including financial and mental health challenges that teacher candidates face,” says Nihat Polat, professor and chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership. “She not only assumes the responsibilities of program coordination, but also willingly takes on additional program duties to introduce innovative changes.”
In 2010, Jovanovic joined the University of Maryland as field supervisor for secondary social studies education. Since 2012, she has been her department’s professional development schools coordinator for secondary social studies education, and was named principal faculty specialist in 2024, developing student workshops, representing the program at community events, and revising curricula.
Jovanovic has created a professional learning community focused on preparing student teachers to work with AI, advised on recruitment efforts, and developed and redesigned courses intended to support students transitioning to working in schools; she’s also taught five courses.
Jovanovic serves as a principal investigator for the edTerps CARES Network: Building Community, Access, and Resources for Educator Success, funded by the College of Education and the Do Good Campus Fund and designed to recruit and retain community college transfer students into teaching programs at UMD. She is also an affiliate faculty member with the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM).   
“She is a team player who is always willing to go above and beyond her position description to assist students in becoming high-quality teachers. She brings a depth of academic and real-world experience to the college in service of our university students and the students they serve in the local public schools,” says the college’s internship coordinator, Stacey C. Williams. “(Jovanovic) exemplifies the College of Education motto, ‘Transforming Education for Good.’”


Provost’s Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty
Monica VanKlompenberg (Teaching)
Department of Animal and Avian Sciences
From cold early mornings demonstrating milking at the Campus Farm’s dairy barn to evenings advising the Block and Bridle animal agriculture club, Senior Lecturer Monica VanKlompenberg goes above and beyond for students in the Department of Animal and Avian Sciences. 
“Dr. VanKlompenberg is dedicated, innovative and committed to effective teaching,” say Distinguished University Professor Tom Porter and Professor Adele Turzillo, the former and current department chairs, respectively. “She has been instrumental in bringing about near-transformational change in many of our lower division and core courses.”
VanKlompenberg has taught 11 courses over the past decade, covering a wide range of topics such as domestic animal endocrinology, commercial poultry management and mammalian reproduction. She has created four courses, including one on goat management for the new herd that arrived in Spring 2025, and secured more than $67,000 in grants for new equipment and class development. 
“As her student, I experienced firsthand the care that Monica has put into her courses, materials and teaching so that the maximum number of students succeed,” says Sullivan Haine ’24. They praised VanKlompenberg’s “active learning” approach that helps students retain difficult material. 
VanKlompenberg earned her bachelor’s degree in animal science from Michigan State University and her doctorate in animal biology from the University of California, Davis. She has taught at UMD since 2016 and became a senior lecturer in 2022. She also runs the department’s Career Discovery and Internship Program and mentors undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants. 
VanKlompenberg has been recognized by the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture professional society with teaching awards, and has also presented on her methods at NACTA conferences. 
Associate Professor Tasia Kendrick of Michigan State University says she has drawn from VanKlompenberg’s workshops and seminars for ideas on how to engage students, including creating a virtual escape room and using board games.
“Her passion and enthusiasm for teaching and student success is apparent,” Kendrick says.


Distinguished Scholar-Teacher
Rellie Derfler-Rozin
Department of Management and Organization
In a career of incisive inquiry into workplace decision-making, Rellie Derfler-Rozin has made waves researching “zero-sum” mindsets; these erroneous beliefs hold that one person’s gain is necessarily another’s loss. Overcoming such biases is essential for business leaders, she has demonstrated in widely cited research, revealing in one seminal paper that hiring managers often discriminate against job candidates who inquire about salary or benefits in addition to showing motivation for the work itself.
Derfler-Rozin is “a household name in behavioral ethics and decision-making” and “one of the very best theorists and methodologists in the field today,” says Professor Michele Gelfand of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a UMD Distinguished University Professor Emerita.
In the classroom, Derfler-Rozin has demonstrated zeal for developing prosocial leaders who seek to create value collaboratively rather than simply vanquish competitors. The academic director for the Master’s in Management Studies program at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, she helps students understand that personal success is often achieved when whole organizations rise together.
“She has reimagined the curriculum to inculcate a win-win mentality and ethical leadership in her students,” say Smith School Chair of Management and Organization Subra Tangirala and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Wedad J. Elmaghraby.
Derfler-Rozin, who joined UMD’s faculty in 2012, received multiple best paper awards from the Academy of Management and an Honor Roll Award at Responsible Research in Business and Management and has served on the editorial boards of multiple academic journals in her field. She also has earned nine teaching awards from the Smith School, including two Allen Krowe Teaching Awards, the school’s top honor.
Her insights on cognitive bias and blind spots proved “invaluable in reframing discussions with my team members, particularly those with whom I have had a direct role in hiring,” says Amal Isaiah EMBA ’24, a professor of otorhinolaryngology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Derfler-Rozin earned a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in organizational behavior from the London Business School, a master’s degree in industrial psychology from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and an undergraduate degree in psychology and economics from Tel Aviv University.


Distinguished Scholar-Teacher
Robyn Muncy
Department of History
Robyn Muncy is a preeminent scholar of U.S. women’s history and social policy in the 20th century as well as a caring and vibrant teacher, mentor and adviser. 
Her first book, “Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform,” “transformed the way we think of U.S. women’s reform networks and their ties to policy,” says Eileen Boris, Hull Professor and Distinguished Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It’s one of the most frequently cited historical studies of women and the welfare state.
Her second, “Relentless Reformer: Josephine Roche and Progressivism in Twentieth-Century America,” underscored how gender analysis can illuminate politics and society at large.
Muncy also co-curated an exhibit at the National Archives that ran from 2019-22 to mark the centennial of the women’s suffrage movement: “Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote.”
Muncy earned her B.A. at Lindenwood College, M.A. at the University of Idaho and Ph.D. at Northwestern University and arrived at the University of Maryland in 1990.
She has co-directed the College Park Scholars program in American cultures, served as interim chair for the women’s studies department, and been director of undergraduate studies and of the honors program in the history department. She’s taught a rich array of courses and is admired for her practice of asking students after each lecture to turn in a scrap of paper with their name, one thing they learned and one question they had; she’d then answer the most common questions in the next session.
A mentor to hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students, she has been honored with the Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars Faculty Mentor Award and the Graduate Faculty Mentor of the Year Award, among others.
Amy Rutenberg Ph.D. ’13, associate professor of history at Iowa State University, recalls Muncy’s “ethic of care” as her adviser, which included providing a key to her office while on sabbatical so Rutenberg could have privacy to feed her baby. She credits much of her professional success to Muncy.
“Her example made me a sharper scholar, a better teacher and, I hope, a more empathetic human being. She is the professor I want to be and the model we all should aspire to,” she says.


Distinguished Scholar-Teacher
Megan Madigan Peercy
Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership
For the growing number of multilingual students in Maryland and across the country, Professor Megan Madigan Peercy has made exceptional contributions as a scholar and a teacher working to transform their educational opportunities and outcomes. 
“What particularly stands out…is her commitment to ensuring that multilingual students, regardless of their home language or English proficiency levels, have equitable access to all classroom learning activities across grade levels,” says Professor Christian Faltis of Texas A&M International University.
Peercy, co-director of the Multilingual Research Center, is an internationally known expert on teacher education and applied linguistics. Over the last two decades, she has published more than 40 articles in top journals, two books and 25 chapters, as well as given more than 120 presentations and talks, leading to more than 2,300 citations. She and collaborators have received almost $5 million in research grant funding, and she was recognized by the American Educational Research Association with the 2024 Leadership Through Research Award. 
As part of her commitment to putting research into practice, Peercy has also developed YouTube videos with strategies for practitioners as well a reading curriculum in partnership with PBS. In addition, she serves as special assistant to the provost for strategic initiatives and previously served as associate dean in the College of Education.
Peercy earned her bachelor’s degree from Trinity University and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Utah. As an educator, she teaches many graduate-level courses and has advised, mentored and served on dissertation committees for more than 50 students, including advising seven current doctoral students. 
Peercy empowers graduate research assistants to begin to see themselves as experts, offers constructive feedback on mentees’ goals and contributes to students’ socio-emotional well-being, say Mel Hardy-Skeberdis Ph.D. ’24 and Jessica Crawford Ph.D. ’25: “Dr. Peercy has not only been a role model to us and other graduate students, but to other faculty members in the way humanizing mentorship can have a lasting impact on graduate students themselves and the overall environment of the College of Education.”  


Distinguished Scholar-Teacher
James Stern
School of Music
James Stern is a world-class violinist who applies his elite musical talents to reach new creative heights—and to help his students do the same.
His music has graced esteemed stages at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, as well as the Marlboro, Ravinia, Banff and Bowdoin festivals, among many others. He is a member of two critically acclaimed ensembles—the Stern/Andrist Duo with his wife, pianist Audrey Andrist, and Strata, a trio also including clarinetist Nathan Williams—that have performed throughout the United States, Canada and China. They’ve played additional recitals in Munich and Paris, with repeat engagements at San Francisco Composers, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival and New York’s historic Maverick Concerts.
Stern is also a prominent recording artist and has performed recently for NPR’s “Performance Today” series.
“Each of the chamber music performances I have heard by James has displayed the very highest level of artistic insight, emotional communication and violinistic command,” says Kevin Lawrence, professor of violin and string department chair at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Stern earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the Juilliard School and joined UMD as associate professor of violin and chamber music in 2001, becoming a full professor in 2015. In addition to teaching his violin classes, he also contributes courses in string literature, string pedagogy and violin interpretation and repertoire.
“When I had my trial lesson, I was struck by how his teaching style was really engaging, incredibly technical and created real musical challenges for me to try and overcome right then and there,” says Anna Kelleher ’23, M.M. ’25, who studied under Stern. “It was the best lesson I had ever had.”
His contributions extend beyond the classroom. Stern also organizes and leads masterclasses, workshops and performance ensembles, providing students with opportunities to hone their skills and collaborate with other musicians.
“His commitment to student success, his deep dedication to the art of teaching and his tireless efforts to foster a thriving musical community on campus make him an outstanding role model and educator,” says Jonathan Carney, concertmaster with the Baltimore Symphony.


Distinguished Scholar-Teacher
Michael Votta
School of Music
A globally known conductor, Michael Votta has been lauded for his innovative programming, musical artistry, scholarship in the wind band field and ability to inspire the best performances from students and professionals alike.  
Votta joined the University of Maryland in 2008 as director of bands, a position in which he has since tirelessly worked to raise the profile of UMD’s bands while challenging students to embrace difficult and sometimes rarely performed works. A professor of conducting and ensembles, he also directs the UMD Wind Orchestra.
“The concert repertoire he chooses is creative and dynamic, his performances moving and thoughtful,” says Brian Coffill D.M.A. ’18, director of instrumental ensembles and associate professor of music at Randolph-Macon College. “He provides the room for musicians to be their best creative selves, never overreaching from the podium but instead providing opportunities for each individual to craft their own journey, together.”
Votta earned bachelor’s degrees in microbiology and clarinet from the University of Michigan, where he went on to earn M.M. degrees in clarinet and conducting. He completed his D.M.A. in conducting at the Eastman School of Music. He is the author of the book “The Wind Band and its Repertoire: Two Decades of Research as Published in the College Band Directors National Journal;” he has also earned plaudits from a range of prominent composers for his conducting and recording of their works.
Votta has taught over a dozen courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and has served as primary adviser to 10 doctoral students and six master’s students. He created the wind conducting component of UMD’s M.M. program in instrumental conducting, and conceived the D.M.A. in wind conducting. 
“I never wanted to disappoint Dr. Votta because of how much he believed in his students,” says Jonathan Caldwell M.M. ’11, director of bands at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. “He is someone I look up to, someone I try to emulate in my creative activity and scholarship, and someone I hold up as a role model to my own students.”  

Distinguished University Professor
Michael Brown
Department of Geology
A world leader in metamorphic geology, Michael Brown has spent his 53-year career exploring how Earth’s rocks transformed over time, providing original contributions and insight about heat and mass transfer and secular change. His discoveries about the evolution of global tectonics and development of the Earth’s continental crust have led to foundational changes in his field.
“He is one of the best-known and most respected figures in his area,” says Amitabh Varshney, dean of UMD’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, noting that Brown’s research has led to the rewriting of textbooks. “His pioneering work has led to a profound rethinking of the interpretation of geologic history.”
His research offers “a landmark contribution into our understanding of metamorphic belts and their evolution through time,” says Monash University Professor and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow Peter Cawood. 
The founding editor of the Journal of Metamorphic Geology and former president of the Mineralogical Society of America, Brown has published 186 peer-reviewed papers and 33 reports and co-authored one and edited four books. His work has been cited more than 20,000 times. 
With a bachelor’s degree in geography and geology and a doctorate from Keele University, Brown served as chair of UMD’s Department of Geology from 1990 to 2011, during which time it earned international renown in the fields of geology and geochemistry. In 2024, he received the Winston Family Honors Faculty Award for outstanding advising, mentorship and supervision of UMD honors students. 
Brown is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America and the Mineralogical Society of America. A past winner of the John Sacheverell A’deane Coke Medal for service to geology from the London-based Geological Society, Brown also earned a Distinguished Geologic Career Award from the Geological Society of America and the Collins Medal from the Mineralogical Society of the United Kingdom and Ireland. 
“It is not possible to overstate Mike’s influence on and high standing in the field of metamorphic geology,” says Donna Whitney, University of Minnesota professor and past president of the Mineralogical Society of America. “You can pretty much pick any major topic in the geosciences that touches on metamorphic processes at any scale ... and there will be a significant Mike Brown paper on the topic.”


Distinguished University Professor
Reza Ghodssi
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Institute for Systems Research
A big presence in a “tiny” field, Reza Ghodssi is an influential global leader in micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and their applications in engineering, medicine and more.
Among his innovations are low-friction micro-ball bearings for miniature rotary systems, MEMS-based gray-scale lithography for fabricating silicon 3D microstructures, and optical and microfluidic systems to test new drugs. He’s now developing remarkable ingestible devices that deliver drugs,  conduct tests and take measurements while traveling through the gut. 
“Professor Ghodssi’s most significant contributions to scholarship share rare and outstanding hallmarks: Each is firmly an interdisciplinary pursuit with a mission emerging at that disciplinary interface, around which Professor Ghodssi draws people and resources together to build something bigger than the projects or people alone,” says Amy Herr, Chancellor’s Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley.  “Many leaders dream of—and even attempt—such endeavors. Few are as successful as Professor Ghodssi.” 
Ghodssi earned his Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since joining UMD in 2000, he has held numerous leadership roles, including directing the Institute for Systems Research, where he helped establish the Maryland Robotics Center and the Brain and Behavior Institute as founding co-director. In 2022, he became inaugural executive director of research and innovation for the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University System of Maryland at Southern Maryland. He is also president of the Transducer Research Foundation, an international body fostering innovation in sensors and microsystems. 
His mentorship of over 130 students and postdocs has produced academic leaders and industry innovators now at institutions such as Georgia Tech, Meta and the Army Research Lab.
He holds nine U.S. patents, with nine applications published and nine pending, and has authored over 175 peer-reviewed journal articles and more than 370 conference papers. He is a fellow of the American Vacuum Society, American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. In 2024, he won the Gaede-Langmuir Award from the American Vacuum Society for his pioneering MEMS research.
Ghodssi’s “reputation and accomplishments speak volumes, making him one of the most esteemed colleagues in his field,” says Professor Christofer Hierold of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.


Distinguished University Professor
Abba Gumel
Department of Mathematics
A global leader in mathematical biology, Abba Gumel provides insight and understanding on the spread and control of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases of major public health significance, such as malaria, tuberculosis and influenza-like pandemics. He designs, validates and simulates novel mathematical models for predicting disease trajectories and formulating strategies to control and mitigate their burden.  
“What impresses me most is the broad scope and importance of the problems Gumel attacks, the depth of the mathematics, the substantial contact with real-world situations and the range of collaborators he has worked with,” says Simon Levin Ph.D. ’64, the James S. McDonnel Distinguished University Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. 
Gumel earned his Ph.D. in mathematics at Brunel University of London and bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Bayero University in Nigeria. He came to UMD in 2022 as the Michael and Eugenia Brin E-Nnovate Endowed Chair in Mathematics, after professorships at Arizona State University and University of Manitoba. His more than 170 peer-reviewed publications have received nearly 14,000 citations. He has written four edited volumes.
Gumel has advised 23 current and previous Ph.D. and master’s students, 10 undergraduates and 10 postdocs. He is editor-in-chief of Mathematical Biosciences and associate editor of seven other journals, including three in Africa. He led the U.S.-Africa BioMath Initiative to build the field’s capacity, and served on the African Scientific Committee of the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology. He was secretary of the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematical Society, which awarded him the Arthur Beaumont Distinguished Service Award.
For contributions to the mathematical theory of epidemics, Gumel delivered the 2021 American Mathematical Society Einstein lecture, a top honor in the field; he is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, African Scientific Institute, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Nigerian Academy of Science, African Academy of Sciences and World Academy of Sciences.
“Dr. Gumel is not just a leader in research, but one who has broadened our thinking, unified the study of many diseases through common principles, and who has shaken up the conventional wisdom on how diseases spread,” says Professor Frederick R. Adler, University of Utah School of Biological Sciences director.


Distinguished University Professor
Donald Milton
Department of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health
During the COVID-19 pandemic, society switched from relying on having clean hands, long assumed to prevent respiratory infection, to what science has shown actually works: breathing clean air. The transition was sped along by Donald Milton, a professor in the Department of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health (GEOH) who had studied airborne infection transmission as a physician-scientist for decades.
“Don Milton was the scientist we needed in public health when the pandemic arrived,” says Robin Puett, professor and associate dean for research and faculty affairs in the University of Maryland School of Public Health. “Don proved to be the ‘canary in the coal mine’ sounding the alarm that his finding showed COVID was transmitted via airborne droplets.”
Milton earned his B.S. in chemistry at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, medical degree at Johns Hopkins University, and master’s and doctoral degrees in occupational health from Harvard School of Public Health. After medical internships and hospital residencies, he served in research and faculty positions at Harvard and the University of Massachusetts Lowell before arriving at UMD in 2009 as the first permanent director of the Maryland Institute of Applied Health, now GEOH. 
He has advised more than 70 medical and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. He is an elected fellow of the International Society for Indoor Air Quality and Climate and a member of the World Health Organization group updating guidelines for controlling respiratory infections with pandemic potential based on lessons from COVID-19.
“His research has not only expanded our theoretical understanding of respiratory disease pathways but has also informed practical guidelines for disease prevention in diverse settings, from health care facilities to education institutions,” says Professor Benjamin J Cowling, a Hong Kong University School of Public Health epidemiologist.
Milton has published more than 140 papers in international journals, resulting in over 25,000 citations. He has received more than $60 million in funding over his career, with current funding exceeding $32 million. Among his signature projects, he is principal investigator on a $15 million National Institutes of Health-funded study to evaluate modes of influenza transmission with a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers. He is also conducting studies on prevention of superspreading of airborne infections using germicidal ultraviolet light, supported by the Balvi Fund.


Distinguished University Professor
Reinhard Radermacher
Department of Mechanical Engineering
If you’re sitting in a comfortably climate-controlled room right now, you may have late mechanical engineering Professor Reinhard Radermacher to thank.
His pioneering research on conventional and novel heat pumps, air conditioning and refrigeration led to industry-wide changes that improved energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact. As a physicist working in engineering, Radermacher brought a unique perspective to the field, with signature achievements that include pioneering contributions to multi-stage sorption systems, combined heat and power systems, and personal cooling systems.
“Through Professor Radermacher’s work and leadership, the University of Maryland has achieved prominence and name recognition in the field of thermal science and engineering,” says Harry Dankowicz, professor and chair of UMD’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. 
Radermacher, who died in January, co-founded the Center for Environmental Energy Engineering in 1991 and directed it until his death this year, leading a team that innovated “dramatic efficiency improvements of the machines and systems that provide human comfort, support the food chain, and address many other areas of societal need, from health care to energy,” says Anthony M. Jacobi, head of the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois. 
Radermacher was a highly cited expert, publishing more than 500 journal and conference papers and three books, and served as editor-in-chief for 17 years of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ journal, Science and Technology for the Built Environment. In addition, he was a prolific inventor who held 17 U.S. patents and co-founded three companies. He was recognized globally for his work, including receiving the Gustav Lorentzen Medal, a lifetime achievement award, from the International Institute of Refrigeration, and the J&E Hall Gold Medal from the Institute of Refrigeration.
He joined the University of Maryland in 1983, shortly after earning his doctorate from Technical University Munich in Germany. Over four decades, he graduated more than 100 master’s and doctoral students, many of whom have distinguished themselves in academia and industry. 
“He is truly an icon within the field,” James E. Brawn, professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, said last year. “He has created a tremendous legacy that will live on for many years.” 


Distinguished University Professor
Nan Bernstein Ratner
Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences
Nan Bernstein Ratner has contributed broadly to every facet of our understanding of human communication development and its impairments.
She is perhaps the nation’s premier researcher of the psycholinguistic complexities of stuttering as well as normal disfluency. Uniquely, Bernstein Ratner studies stuttering as a disorder involving language formulation, not just a speech deficit. That claim has had important implications for basic science as well as treatment. 
“Dr. Ratner is quite simply one of the first people anyone names as a researcher in the field,” says Rochelle Newman, professor and former chair of the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP). Bernstein Ratner’s research also spans children with language delays and other developmental conditions.
She came to UMD in 1983 after earning a B.A. in child study/linguistics from Tufts, an M.A. in speech-language pathology/audiology from Temple and an Ed.D. in applied psycholinguistics from Boston University. 
Her research has been cited over 14,000 times. Bernstein Ratner has co-authored multiple editions of “A Handbook on Stuttering,” the authoritative reference text in that field, and two additional major textbooks, “Psycholinguistics” and “The Development of Language.” Bernstein Ratner has also served as editor or associate editor of numerous major disciplinary journals.
“The most noteworthy aspect of her many contributions is the extent to which she is driving truly cutting-edge research and practice in each of these areas,” says Brian MacWhinney of Carnegie Mellon University, a longtime research colleague, who, with Ratner, has been at the forefront of the open science movement, by developing multiple open-source language research archives and analytical tools at the international TalkBank initiative.
She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received the Honors of the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association. Other honors include authoring one of the 50 most influential articles of the past 50 years, according to the Journal of Fluency Disorders. She was named a Distinguished Researcher by the International Fluency Association and Professional of the Year by the National Stuttering Association. 
Bernstein Ratner also founded the LEAP preschool on campus for language-delayed children, and for more than 20 years served as HESP department chair, taking it from threats of closure to being nationally ranked. 


Distinguished University Professor
Christopher S. Reynolds
Department of Astronomy
Astrophysicist Christopher S. Reynolds is a trailblazer in the study of supermassive black holes and universally regarded as a leading X-ray astronomer. Equally talented at theory and observation, Reynolds has carved a global reputation for studies of the plasma physics of black hole accretion flows and the hot, diffuse plasmas in galaxies and galaxy clusters. 
“I know of no other researcher who can go between observations, project leadership, data analysis, theory and large-scale numerical computations with the ease that Chris navigates this terrain,” says Steven Balbus, Savilius Professor of Astronomy emeritus at the University of Oxford. 
He earned his B.A. in theoretical physics and Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of Cambridge and later held the Hubble Fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder. He came to UMD in 2001 and was later named director of the Joint Space Institute (JSI) and the Astronomy Center for Theory and Computation. In 2017, Reynolds was appointed to Cambridge’s Plumian Professorship, one of astronomy’s most prestigious positions. He returned to UMD in 2023 to again lead JSI, a partnership between the Department of Astronomy and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He’s now leading AXIS, a $1 billion X-ray observatory mission chosen by NASA last year to enter Phase A development. 
“His extensive scientific contributions and his brilliance are internationally recognized, and his successful leadership of the AXIS space satellite project—the only high-resolution X-ray telescope likely to be built in the next two decades by NASA or any other space agency—puts him in a class of his own,” says Professor C. Megan Urry, director of Yale University’s Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Reynolds has authored over 350 peer-reviewed papers, amassing nearly 31,000 citations. His honors and awards include delivering the 2024 McDonnell Distinguished Lecture, a Simons Fellowship, the Helen B. Warner Prize and a European Research Council Advanced Grant. He has mentored 20 Ph.D. students, 21 postdocs and early-career researchers, and numerous undergraduates. Reynolds is a favorite educator, winning astronomy’s 2024 Distinguished Faculty Teaching Prize, and an energetic science community leader, serving on national and international advisory panels and helping to organize conferences, among other activities.


Distinguished University Professor
Chunsheng Wang
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Chungsheng Wang’s groundbreaking battery research is helping to power the era of electric cars, mobile computing and renewables by providing technology that is at once safer and able to pack more energy into smaller spaces. 
“His key contributions are to understand and control interface reactions, reduce the use of flammable components and promote the use of sustainable materials,” says Nancy Dudney, laboratory research fellow emerita at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. “He innovates by making unconventional connections and forging novel approaches. It is too vague, but to say Professor Wang ‘thinks out of the box’ is an apt description.”
The R.F. and F.R. Wright Distinguished Chair and director of the UMD Center for Extreme Batteries, he’s working with lithium-ion chemistry to make it stand up to the rigors of space or battlefields. Wang’s fundamental research translates into marketable innovations, as shown by two startup companies based on his findings, WH-Power and AquaLith Advanced Materials; he holds dozens of patents.
Wang has produced nearly 400 peer-reviewed publications in many top journals, generating over 89,000 citations. He has been listed since 2018 as a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Clarivate in both material science and chemistry—the only UMD faculty member named in two categories. He is a well-regarded teacher and mentor, with students and postdocs from his lab frequently receiving three to five job offers and 20 former group members spread across the U.S., Canada and China in faculty positions.  
He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Jiamusi University, his M.S. in materials science and engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in the same field from Zhejiang University. Wang came to UMD in 2007 after stints at Tennessee Technological University and Texas A&M. He is a fellow of the Electrochemical Society, which awarded him the Battery Division Research Award in 2021, and twice won UMD’s Invention of the Year competition.
According to Khalil Amine, an Argonne Distinguished Fellow and leader of the Advanced Battery Technology Team at Argonne National Laboratory, Wang has “built a unique interdisciplinary research program at UMD, centered on electrolyte and electrode materials, to address the most challenging problems in battery research.”


Kirwan Faculty Research and Scholarship Prize
Deborah Nelson
Philip Merrill College of Journalism
From shedding light on the global hunger crisis to examining how human encroachment on wildlife habitat could spark the next pandemic, investigative journalism Professor Deborah Nelson produces groundbreaking reporting while training new generations of reporters to expose systemic failures and question authority.
“She has written stunning and impactful stories consistently for decades, tales that uncovered wrongdoing, held the powerful to account, and won most major awards, including a Pulitzer Prize,” says Professor Joe Stephens of Princeton University. Nelson is “a towering figure in her field.” 
As a freelance science and investigative reporter for Reuters, Nelson has worked with international teams on projects that combined in-depth storytelling with data analysis, most recently in 2024’s “The Starving World,” examining famine and policy breakdowns around the globe, and 2023’s “The Bat Lands,” examining risks to humans from bat habitat destruction. The Overseas Press Club judges called the latter a “tour-de-force of graphics presentations, narrative writing, data analysis and on-the-ground reporting on six continents.” 
While outside the scope of traditional academic publications, Nelson’s work “exemplifies the scholarship of practice,” says Merrill College Dean Rafael Lorente. “She is the gold standard.” 
Nelson helped edit “Lethal Restraint,” a 2024 series by UMD’s Howard Center for Investigative Journalism in partnership with the Associated Press, PBS’s “Frontline” and Arizona State University. It documented more than 1,000 U.S. deaths from police use of supposedly nonlethal methods from 2012-21 and was a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist. She was part of a team that established the center in 2019, empowering students to take on major investigative projects.
Since 2002, she has developed and taught upper-level classes at Merrill on public affairs reporting, data gathering and analysis, and confronting propaganda and extremism; Nelson has also lectured around the world and balanced a full course load with freelance reporting. 
She earned a bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University and a law degree from DePaul University before embarking on a five-decade career reporting for outlets like the Chicago Sun-Times, The Seattle Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. 
Nelson produces “crucial journalism that is increasingly rare and ever more essential in today’s fractured and underfunded media ecosystem,” says Professor Tom Haines of the University of New Hampshire. Her work “provides a unique service to the public, offering a roadmap for change that could positively impact millions of people.” 


Kirwan Undergraduate Education Award
Lawrence Washington
Department of Mathematics
From writing textbooks to organizing statewide academic competitions to recruiting and mentoring the next generation of mathematicians, Larry Washington has made unparalleled contributions to education on campus and beyond.
The professor of mathematics has designed and developed the curriculum for popular courses over nearly half a century at UMD, bringing a unique teaching approach to the classroom. He performs “magic” tricks in his number theory class, for example, to illustrate properties of congruences, and he brings in a locked box of chocolates to demonstrate secret-sharing techniques in cryptography.
“Never does he fall into a rut of a lesson plan,” says Dave Levin ’02, Ph.D. ’12, a former student of Washington’s who is now associate professor and chair of UMD’s computer science honors program. “He is always excited to veer off in interesting new directions that arise from the class discussions.”
Washington earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University and his doctoral degree from Princeton University. He joined UMD as a visiting assistant professor in 1977 and was hired by William “Brit” Kirwan, this award’s namesake, to a regular position in 1978. He became a full professor in 1986.
A valued mentor, he has for three decades led the mathematics honors program, working with many of the department’s most talented majors. He almost never turns away a student, no matter when they show up at his office door. 
“Larry genuinely cares about the well-being of his students, and his motivational talks over the years made an enormous difference in my college experience,” says Tanay Wakhare ’20, who subsequently attended graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Mathematical Association of America recognized Washington’s influence in 2009 with the John M. Smith Award, given annually to a mid-Atlantic educator who has made substantial contributions to teaching mathematics at the college or university level.
Washington is similarly a champion for K-12 math students. He has been one of the main organizers of the Maryland High School Math Competition since its inception in 1978 and has been involved with several other outreach programs, such as the Montgomery County Middle School and High School mathematics leagues.
“Larry’s distinguished record in undergraduate education is astonishingly broad,” says Amitabh Varshney, dean of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. “As a consultant and mentor, he has helped develop future leaders in science and had a significant impact on recruiting excellent undergraduates to the university.”


President’s Medal 
Bonnie Thornton Dill
College of Arts and Humanities
With groundbreaking research linking gender, poverty, race and other areas of inequality, Bonnie Thornton Dill has reimagined the field of women’s studies at the University of Maryland and across the nation. In the process, she transformed the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) through her visionary leadership, her persistence in diversifying the faculty and her focus on expanding the reach of the arts and humanities on campus. 
The entire university community has richly benefited from Thornton Dill’s groundbreaking work in her more than 35 years at UMD, says ARHU Dean Stephanie Shonekan. “She personifies the guiding principles of the University of Maryland.Her work is driven by a quest for values-based excellence; it advances, proudly and boldly, the university’s commitments to diversity, inclusion, equity and access; her entire career has evidenced both impact and innovation at every turn,” Shonekan says. “She is entirely generous and collaborative and … her work and life contributes mightily to the public good and the advancement of humanity.”
A pioneering scholar in the areas of Black and intersectional feminism, Thornton Dill arrived at the University of Maryland as a tenured professor in what is now the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS). “Her central role in guiding debates about power and inequality in women’s studies has affected the thinking of multiple generations of students and scholars … through foundational research articles,” say Professor and Chair Neda Atanasoski, Distinguished University Professor Ruth Enid Zambrana, and Professor Neel Ahuja, all of WGSS. 
In 2011, Thornton Dill became dean of ARHU, a role she held for 11 years. In this position, she oversaw 14 academic units, 700 faculty members and 200 staffers. She threw herself into the task of hiring outstanding educators and scholars, especially from underrepresented groups, and championing their research, increasing the percentage of faculty of color within the college by 24%. 
Thornton Dill has a career-long record of securing field-defining grants. As dean, she was instrumental in securing a $2.8 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to create the African American History, Culture, and Digital Humanities initiative. She is also co-P.I. on a $3.5 million Mellon Foundation grant for Breaking the M.O.L.D. (Mellon/Maryland Opportunities for Leadership Development), which provides senior leadership training to faculty in the arts and humanities at UMD as well as the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Morgan State University.
She also played a key role in creating and launching ARHU’s Arts for All initiative, an influential cross-campus effort uniting the university’s strengths in the arts, technology and social justice. 
In addition, Thornton Dill has served the broader university on many committees, including searches for senior leadership, campus-wide diversity and strategic planning initiatives, the Provost’s Task Force on Arts initiatives, and the President’s Commission on Community Policing. She was also a leader in the establishment of Frederick Douglass Square on campus.
“Her legacy is not only one of personal achievement, but of structural transformation—of building pathways, programs and policies that have empowered faculty, staff and students across the institution,” says Jordana Moore Saggese, professor of modern and contemporary art of the United States and director of the David C. Driskell Center.
Thornton Dill earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Rochester, and a master’s degree in human relations and Ph.D. in sociology from New York University. 
She “has been a true friend to many, building meaningful relationships with students, faculty and staff,” says Psyche Williams-Forson, professor and chair of American Studies. “Her legacy is one of compassion, kindness and unwavering support for those around her. Undoubtedly, her contributions have made a lasting impact on this institution, and her legacy will continue to inspire generations of students, faculty and staff.”