Portland State University today announced the recipients of the 2019 awards for excellence in research and graduate mentoring. The awards are among the university’s highest honors and are meant to recognize and incentivize the ongoing excellence of PSU faculty through research, including scholarship, artistry and dedication to PSU students.
Recipients of the awards are some of the most dynamic faculty members at PSU. Nominations are made by colleagues and awardees are selected by a jury of peers based on the significance and quality of their research or creative achievements and extraordinary commitment to creating an environment supportive of student success.
The 2019 Presidential Career Research Award recipient is Beth Green. Green is the Director of Early Childhood and Family Support Research within the School of Social Work’s Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services. Over a 25-year career, she has focused on partnering with community-based programs to design useful and rigorous evaluation and research studies that improve services for young children and their families. Since joining PSU in 2010, Green has received over 30 research and evaluation grants and contracts totaling more than $10M. Across all of these projects, she has strived to provide equity-driven research that promotes social justice by bringing together program managers, researchers, and families to foster successful outcomes for all children.
“It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Dr. Green’s research both to the School of Social Work and Portland State as a whole,” said former PSU President, Rahmat Shoureshi. “Her work goes to the heart of PSU’s mission of serving the city. And the fact that she was nominated and selected for this prestigious award by her peers speaks volumes about how much the university values her work.”
This year’s Graduate Mentoring Excellence Award recipient is Deborah Lutterschmidt. Lutterschmidt is an associate professor in the College of Liberal Arts & Science’s biology department. In the lab, Lutterschmidt and her students investigate the biological mechanisms that help animals tell time. Specifically, they study how environmental cues such as day length and temperature influence seasonal reproduction. Lutterschmidt joined PSU in 2010. During her time at the university, she has mentored over 40 undergraduate students and has served as the primary mentor to seven graduate students. With her assistance, Lutterschmidt’s students have secured 15 research grants, co-authored 15 publications and given 23 research presentations at international and local conferences.
“Throughout my academic career, I have had many mentors, but none as exceptional and outstanding as Dr. Lutterschmidt,” said Daelyn Richards, a doctoral candidate at OHSU. “What sets her apart is her ability to guide her students in a way that gives them creative freedom in an enduring, safe and motivating environment, setting a foundation for excellence in her lab and institution.”
Steve Reichow, an assistant professor in the College of Liberal Arts & Science’s chemistry department is the recipient of the 2019 Early Career Research Award. Reichow’s research is inspired by the mechanisms that drive biology at the molecular level. In the lab, Reichow uses a high-resolution imaging technology, known as CryoEM, to illuminate the structures of biological macromolecules and unveil their inner workings with atomic-level detail. These atomic models provide blueprints for the development of pharmaceutical and genetic therapies for treating disease. Reichow’s work has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health with an early-career Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award and published by prestigious scientific journals, including Nature, eLife, and Nature Communications. Reichow also provides mentored research experience to underrepresented students in STEM through PSU’s BUILD EXITO, McNair Fellowship, and NSF REU programs.
“Dr. Reichow is an extraordinarily talented young scientist,” said John Perona, professor of biochemistry at PSU. “His record of research accomplishments and funding would be remarkable for any investigator in the field, regardless of faculty rank.”
The 2019 Non-tenure Track Faculty Research Award recipient is David Cadiz. Cadiz is an instructor in the School of Business. His research broadly focuses on the influence of diversity and occupational health in the workplace and is influenced by his applied work experiences in the healthcare, training and technology industries. Cadiz’s research investigates multiple aspects of the aging workforce and the effects of age in the workplace, including how age biases, job design and an organization’s culture affect an employee’s work attitudes, desire to stay in the workforce and health.
“Dr. Cadiz brings a unique blend of business experience, knowledge of psychological theory, research design and an overarching passion for research to his work,” said David Caughlin, Cameron Professor of HR Analytics in PSU’s School of Business. “Guided by his rigorous training and passion for understanding age diversity in the workplace, Cadiz has amassed a high-quality and ever-growing collection of scientific works and contributions.”
According to Mark McLellan, Vice President for Research & Graduate Studies at PSU, the recipients of the excellence in research and mentoring awards exemplify the quality and caliber of research and student training at PSU.
“The recipients of this year’s awards are the best in their fields,” McLellan said. “Their achievements are a source of pride for the entire university.”
In addition to university-level recognition of excellence in research and mentoring, individual colleges and schools across campus were invited to name a college researcher of the year. Recipients of the college researcher of the year awards are:
- Professor Peter Dusicka, Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science, Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Assistant Professor Andrés Holz, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Geography
- Professor Shawn Smallman, College of Urban & Public Affairs, International & Global Studies
- Professor Berrin Erdogan, School of Business
- Assistant Professor Ingrid Anderson, College of Education, Curriculum & Instruction
- Assistant Professor Jonathan Snowden, OHSU-PSU School of Public Health
- Assistant Professor Gita Mehrotra, School of Social Work