Caldwell, West recognized for academic achievement

Caldwell,
West recognized for academic achievement
…………………………………………………………………

BY
JADE BOYD and ELLEN CHANG
Rice News Staff

Two Rice faculty
members, Carl Caldwell and Jennifer West, have been recognized
for their academic achievement with the 2003

. The award, which carries a $5,000 prize, recognizes
outstanding achievement in both scholarship and teaching.

Even after teaching
for a decade, Caldwell, associate professor of history and
German and Slavic studies, is energized by his students,
who challenge him to continually improve his lectures.

“I didn’t
see the award coming and was completely surprised by it,”
he said. “It’s immensely gratifying to receive
this recognition from the university.”

For the past
few years Caldwell has taught and conducted research about
democratization, economic transition after political collapse
and the relationship between social theory and power. Those
issues are “becoming of ever greater interest in our
world,” Caldwell said.

His most recent
book, “Dictatorship, State Planning and Social Theory
in the German Democratic Republic,” traces the challenges
of democratization and technological and industrial change
through four disciplines: economics, law, philosophy and
cybernetics.

Caldwell received
the Graduate Student Association’s Faculty Teaching/Mentoring
Award in 2001.

West, associate
professor of bioengineering and chemical engineering, said,
“It is a great honor to be selected for the Duncan
Award. This is especially true given the large number of
outstanding young faculty at Rice, many of whom are equally
deserving.”

A researcher
of national prominence and an award-winning teacher, West
has earned accolades from senior administrators and undergraduates
alike.

To those outside
Rice, West is perhaps best known for her cutting-edge research:
She is developing a revolutionary cancer treatment using
gold nanoshells. The research, conducted in collaboration
with nanoshell inventor Naomi Halas, the Stanley C. Moore
Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor
of chemistry, uses biochemical markers to target nanoshells
to tumors, which are then destroyed with a harmless, invisible
light that is shined into the patient’s body.

To Rice students,
West is well-known as a mentor and teacher. Based largely
upon feedback from her students, West was honored with Rice’s
Julia Mile Chance Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2002.

West, who joined
the faculty in 1996, also has been active in a number of
faculty and student organizations and has been recognized
numerous times as a Distinguished Faculty Associate and
was the Outstanding Faculty Associate for Wiess College
in 2001.