FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Susie P. Gonzalez

susie.gonzalez@trinity.edu

May 15, 2008

Trinity Professors Honored For Outstanding Teaching, Service, Scholarship

SAN ANTONIO – Five outstanding members of the Trinity University faculty have been honored for distinction in service, teaching, advising, or research. The awards were announced in early May by Trinity President John R. Brazil and the University’s Office of Academic Affairs.

David Lesch, professor of history, was recognized for outstanding research. Richard Butler, professor of economics, was lauded for his commitment and dedication to distinguished student advising. In addition Sarah Burke, professor of modern languages and literatures, received an award for distinguished University and community service.

Two junior faculty members – assistant professors Dennis Ugolini and Yu Zhang – in the departments of physics and astronomy and computer science, respectively, were cited for distinguished teaching and research.

In recognition of his international reputation as a historian of the modern Middle East, Professor Lesch received an award for distinguished scholarship and research. Since coming to Trinity in 1992, he has published numerous books and articles on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the relationship between the Middle East and the United States, and the political climate in Syria. His edited work, The Middle East and the United States: A Historical and Political Reassessment, first published in 1996 and now in its fourth edition, has been described as the “best single work dealing with the relationship between the United States and the Middle East.” In 2005, he published The New Lion of Damascus: Bashar al-Asad and Modern Syria, a groundbreaking study of the Syrian leader based on traditional scholarly research and extensive personal interviews with President al-Asad. This book established him as an expert in Syrian politics and a trusted analyst for international policymakers. In recent years, he has addressed United Nations officials, European foreign ministers and diplomats, and the U.S. House of Representatives. In November 2007, he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the subject of Syria and Lebanon.

Professor Butler is described as “a patient listener,” who is “open, eager, and friendly with every student.” He tells his students that they have “lifetime membership” with him when he explains that he is always happy to help them, no matter how long they have been away from Trinity. Another student writes, “I send him an update each semester, and he always responds with words of encouragement. I tell my graduate-school classmates about his e-mails, and they remark with envy that their undergraduate professors wouldn’t even remember them, much less stay in touch. I tell them I’m lucky, and that it’s all about the lifetime membership.” One current student noted that “it is hard for me to tell if I have learned more from [this professor’s] lectures or advising meetings.” A student who had several family crises credited Professor Butler “with stabilizing me and providing me with the guidance and comfort that was desperately needed.  If not for him, I would not still be a student at Trinity. He has transcended the role of advisor; I consider him to be my mentor and role model.”

Professor Burke has served on numerous University committees, including the Faculty Senate, the Faculty Development Committee, the Commission on Promotion and Tenure, and three times on the University Curriculum Council. She served on the search committee that brought President John R. Brazil to Trinity, and she chaired a large and complex department, modern languages and literatures, from 1995 to 2001. For the next five years, she served as the first Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs: Faculty Recruitment and Development, demonstrating tireless commitment to the well-being of the faculty and of the University as a whole. She was cited for her strength and ability to be in touch with the goals and progress of individual faculty members, particularly during their first years here. Players on the men’s and women’s soccer teams know her as perhaps their most devoted fan. Within the larger San Antonio community, she has organized a Share Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support group; she has served on the Castle Hills Architectural Review Committee; and she is an active supporter of the local arts.

In his five years at Trinity, Professor Ugolini has distinguished himself as a superb teacher at every level, from First Year Seminar to advanced lectures and labs. One colleague described him as the “most dedicated, skilled, and effective teacher I have ever seen.” He has involved several students in his research, collaborating with them on papers that have been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at major scientific conferences. Carrying his passion for science education beyond Trinity, he has worked with the San Antonio Bridge program for improving K-12 science and math teaching, and he has also been a lecturer and the primary director for the Research Science Institute, held during the summers at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, for exceptional high-school science students. As a highly respected member of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory consortium, he has been a lead author or co-author of 34 published or submitted papers since coming to Trinity in 2003, and he has received $93,000 in National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to support his work. 

Professor Zhang, who came to Trinity in 2004, is the program director for Trinity’s newest Research Experiences for Undergraduates site funded by the NSF. In collaboration with professors of computer science and sociology and student researchers, she and her team will study multi-agent simulations of social systems, a discipline at the intersection of artificial intelligence, cybernetics, and sociology and anthropology. They will look at how we live, learn, and anticipate the future. Professor Zhang also directs the Laboratory for Distributed Intelligent Agent Systems at Trinity. Her work has received more than $260,000 in support from the NSF, Associated Colleges of the South, and the Council on Undergraduate Research.  She has guided student researchers who have been published in nearly 30 professional journals, a stellar accomplishment for undergraduates. She is active in regional chapters of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers groups for women in engineering, computer science, and cybernetics.

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© 2008 Trinity University