April 19, 2006

Faculty members honored for scholarship

by K.C. Jaehnig

(College editors: Note alumni names; educational affiliations appear in bulleted bio briefs)

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale is honoring 11 faculty members for superior scholarship within their academic units.

Paul E. Bates of the College of Education and Human Services, Blaine Bartholomew of the School of Medicine, John H. Carter of Library Affairs, Luciano Debeljuk of the College of Applied Sciences and Arts, Susan Felleman of the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, David J. Gibson of the College of Science, David G. Gilbert of the College of Liberal Arts, Patrick J. Kelley of the School of Law, Peter P. Mykytyn Jr. of the College of Business and Administration, S. Alan Walters of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Tomasz S. Wiltowski of the College of Engineering will receive cash grants and professional development accounts through the University's "Excellence Through Commitment Awards Program."

This program reflects Chancellor Walter V. Wendler's intention to foster creative, scholarly and teaching excellence as outlined in Southern at 150: Building Excellence Through Commitment, the blueprint for the development of the University by the time it celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2019. College-level winners each receive $3,000 outright plus a matching amount through the Office of Research and Development to support professional activities during the next fiscal year.

Wendler will host a dinner for all award winners Thursday, April 27.

Here is a closer look at each of the scholars.

• Bates, a full professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education, came to SIUC in 1978. His work has received national recognition and has made an impact on both state and national policy. A 1981 article on educating those with severe handicaps, written with two colleagues, was cited as one of the classic works in that area, and he and his students have made important contributions to the literature on such topics as community-based instruction, vocational preparation and transition planning.

Bates became an associate professor in 1982 and a full professor in 1986. He earned his bachelor's from Illinois State University in 1972. A three-degree graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he received a master of arts in 1976 and a master's in social work and a doctorate in 1978.

• A faculty member in the School of Medicine's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bartholomew came to campus in 1991. His research interests include gene regulation, cancer biology, DNA and RNA. Bartholomew is particularly interested in chromatin (condensed structures of DNA tightly packaged inside the cell) and the ways in which the cell regulates its structure. Every cell process involving DNA must "unwrap" select parts of chromatin to gain access to that particular part of DNA. He has been characterizing some of the large number of proteins that rearrange chromatin in this process and has developed a series of novel approaches to examine how these proteins reorganize chromatin. The National Institute of Health and the American Cancer Society fund this research.

Bartholomew was promoted to associate professor in 1997 and to full professor in 2004. He earned his bachelor's from Brigham Young University in 1982 and his doctorate from the University of California, Davis in 1988.

• Carter, an assistant professor who came to SIUC in 2001, manages Instructional Support Services. He has published on instructional support, distance learning and computer policy.

Carter earned his bachelor's in 1970 and a master of arts degree in 1972 from the University of Southern California. He earned a second master's in information resources and library science in 1998 from the University of Arizona.

• Debeljuk, an assistant professor in the School of Allied Health, specializes in endocrinology, neuroendocrinology and male and female reproduction. Early on as a member of Andrew V. Schally's research team at Tulane University, he studied the biological activity, functions and secretion control of a hormone that releases gonadotropin, work that helped Schally win a Nobel Prize.

Debeljuk also has studied prolactin in humans, an aminoacidic neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, and the role certain peptides play in the function of the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis. He has won a Guggenheim Fellowship, published more than 160 articles and lectured both here and abroad.

Debeljuk earned his medical degree in 1962 from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

• Felleman, an associate professor in the Department of Cinema and Photography, published her second book, "Art in the Cinematic Imagination," this year, focusing on the interactions between narrative cinema and the other fine arts in the United States and Europe. Her articles have appeared in such journals as Film Quarterly, Camera Obscura and Film History. She has chapters in the book Sayles Talk: New Perspectives on Independent Filmmaker John Sales and in New Hollywood Violence and will soon be lecturing at the John F. Kennedy Institute of Berlin's Freie Universität.

Felleman came to SIUC in 1998 and was promoted last year. She earned her bachelor's in 1981 from Cornell University and her doctorate in 1993 from The City University of New York.

• A full professor since 2000 in the Department of Plant Biology, Gibson's research areas include rare and invasive species, prairie restoration, scaling, competition and agroecology. Over the course of his time here, he has obtained more than $1.5 million in grants from such sources as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Forest Service and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Gibson has published more than 90 papers in such top journals as Ecology, Journal of Ecology, Journal of Applied Ecology, Oecologia and Oikos. He is currently working on a book about grasses and grassland ecology; his first, "Methods in Comparative Plant Population," was published in 2002.

Gibson, who came to SIUC in 1992, was promoted to associate professor in 1994. He earned a bachelor's in 1979 at the University of Reading, a master's in 1981 at the University of Oklahoma and a doctorate in 1985 from the University of Wales.

• Gilbert, a full professor in the Department of Psychology since 1998, directs his departments Integrative Neuroscience Laboratory. Since coming to SIUC in 1985, his research has focused largely on different aspects of smoking, nicotine and other drugs. He is currently looking at how long the symptoms of smoking withdrawal last, how personality and genetic factors interact with nicotine and antidepressant drugs and comparing the effectiveness of the nicotine patch with an antidepressant medication. Gilbert's work has received more than $6 million in grants, with continuous funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for the past 17 years. He has written two books and more than 60 articles and chapters and often lectures at both national and international conferences.

Gilbert received promotion to associate professor in 1990 and became a full professor in 1998. He earned his bachelor's at the University of Washington in 1970 and his master's and doctoral degrees in 1973 and 1978 respectively from Florida State University.

• Kelley, a full professor since 1984, has published book chapters and articles on torts, tort theory, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., statutory interpretation and constitutional law.

He came to SIUC as an associate professor in 1981. He earned his bachelor's in 1965 from Notre Dame University and his law degree in 1969 from the University of Iowa.

• Mykytyn came to SIUC in 2001 as a full professor in the Department of Management. His research interests include the relationship between information technology and a firm's competitive advantage, use of group-supported technologies in organizations, and the relationships between intellectual property, information technology and organizational effectiveness and performance. He published more than 25 articles in such journals as Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Information & Management and Journal of Strategic Information Systems.

A double major at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, Mykytyn earned his bachelor's degrees in 1963. He completed his Master of Business Administration degree in 1981 and his doctorate in 1985, both at Arizona State University.

• Walters, associate professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Agricultural Systems, established the University's vegetable program after his arrival on campus in 1998 and is the state's horseradish point man. His research focuses on pollination ecology of cucurbit vegetables, horseradish breeding, alternative vegetable crops, reduced tillage for vegetable production, horticultural crop disease and weed management. Walters' most important contribution to the field is his identification of hybrid watermelon pollination needs, which has received international attention. He has received more than $1 million in grants and has published more than 35 journal articles and more than 30 outreach publications. He received promotion to associate professor in 2004.

Walters earned his bachelor's degree in 1986 from the University of Georgia and his master's and doctoral degrees in 1991 and 1997 respectively from North Carolina State University.

• Wiltowski, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Processes, is interested in transportation fuels and is working on research related to transforming coal into both liquids and hydrogen. In addition, he is looking at candle filters as a means to filter hot gas. State and federal agencies and private industry have underwritten his research to the tune of more than $5 million, and he holds three patents. With colleagues, Wiltowski has written four books. He also has published 48 articles in professional journals, has made 53 conference presentations and frequently lectures both here and abroad.

Wiltowski joined SIUC in 1985 as a research associate; he received promotion to full professor this year. He earned his master's in 1973 at the Technical University of Cracow in Poland and his doctorate in 1982 at the Institute of Catalysis also in Cracow.

Alan Walters

Alan Walters
Download Photo Here

Blaine Bartholomew

Blaine Bartholomew
Download Photo Here

Dave Gibson

Dave Gibson
Download Photo Here

Dave Gilbert

Dave Gilbert
Download Photo Here

John Carter

John Carter
Download Photo Here

Luciano Debeljuk

Luciano Debeljuk
Download Photo Here

Patrick Kelley

Patrick Kelley
Download Photo Here

Paul Bates

Paul Bates
Download Photo Here

Peter Mykytn

Peter Mykytn
Download Photo Here

Susan Felleman

susan Felleman
Download Photo Here

Tomasz Wiltowski

Tomasz Wiltowski
Download Photo Here