Faculty Recognitions
Peers Nominate Hudek for Southwest Section PGA Award
Curt Hudek, ASU director of the Professional Golf Management program in the Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness, was selected to receive the Horton Smith Award for his contributions to continuing education among golf professionals by the Southwest Section of the PGA (SWSPGA). Every year the SWSPGA recognizes individuals based on peer nominations. This is the second time that Hudek has received this award. Hudek, along with other colleagues, will be presented their awards at the SWSPGA's semi- annual meeting on Oct. 19.
Harris Recognized with Chair Award for Paper
The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) awarded La Verne Abe Harris, ASU assistant professor in Graphic Information Technology at the Polytechnic campus, with the "Chair Award" for a paper that she presented at the society's annual conference in Salt Lake City. Former ASU professor and now associate dean at Purdue University Mary Sadowski was a co-presenter. Harris was the lead author of the paper. The paper, titled "The Leap from Teacher to Teacher-Scholar," highlights the positive and negative impact that academic capitalism and the research model of Pasteur's Quadrant has had on technology professors. The paper will be published in the refereed Engineering Design Graphics Division Journal this fall. Harris has published in this journal before when she received ASEE's Engineering Design Graphics Division's Oppenheimer Award for outstanding paper and presentation given at its 2000-2001 midyear meeting. ASEE is a nonprofit member association, dedicated to promoting and improving engineering and technology education.
Brock Joins State Advisory Council
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano recently appointed ASU Professor of Applied Biological Sciences John Brock as one of 20 members to the Invasive Species Advisory Council. The council will develop recommendations for a statewide invasive species management plan to guide the state in addressing the growing threat of invasive plant and animal species to the Arizona environment, economy and human health. Invasive specifies contribute to the increase in desert wildfires.
Brock's research primarily focuses on rangeland weeds, watershed and riparian habitat in Arizona, though he did study in England and became familiar with invasive species on an international level. He has helped with eight international meetings on plant invasions. He served a two-year term as the chair of the Society for Range Management's Invasive Species Committee. As part of the committee, he has presented briefings to Congressional staffers in Washington, D.C., about invasive plants in the Western United States. Brock is the chair and principal author of a document titled “Arizona Weed and Invasive Plant Strategies," which will be formally released in November at a meeting of the Southwest Vegetation Management Association.