Honors for Arts & Sciences

George M. Hornberger, the Ernest H. Ern Professor of Environmental Sciences, was named one of Virginia’s three Outstanding Scientists for 2007. The awards were announced by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Walter R.T. Witschey, director of the Science Museum of Virginia, and the honorees were introduced to the General Assembly. The award announcement cited Hornberger as “an international leader in environmental science and hydrology” and noted that his research “has led to better understanding of the impact of acid rain in the Blue Ridge, pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, what happens to agricultural chemicals in Shenandoah Valley and Piedmont water supplies.”

Maurie McInnis, associate professor of art history, received the 2007 Spiro Kostof Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians for “The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston.” This award is given each year for an English-language work in any discipline (published within the two previous years) that has made the greatest contribution to our understanding of urbanism and its relationship with architecture.

Michael F. Skrutskie, professor of astronomy, received the James Craig Watson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences for his work on the Two-Micron Sky Survey. Skrutskie shares the award, which includes a prize of $25,000 plus $25,000 to support the recipient’s research, with co-investigator Roc M. Cutri, deputy executive director, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. The medal is awarded every three years and has been presented since 1887. Read related story.

Jill Venton, assistant professor of chemistry, was rewarded for her innovative work in neurochemistry with a $550,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development program.

Michiko N. Wilson, professor of Japanese, was recruited to write an essay on Kenzaburo Oe for the Nobel Prize website. Read the essay.