Honors and awards
December 2019
Whitfield receives first honor coin for diversity and inclusion
Samone Whitfield, assistant director of development for priority initiatives at the ISU Foundaiton and chair of ISU's Black Faculty and Staff Association, is the inaugural recipient of the Presidential Honor Coin for Diversity and Inclusion. She was honored Dec. 6 for "significant contributions in diversity and inclusion at Iowa State University."
Schalinske receives USDA regional teaching award
Kevin Schalinske, professor of food science and human nutrition, is one of five 2019 regional winners of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching Awards. Schalinske, whose research is focused on understanding methyl group metabolism in health and disease, has served as a faculty and teaching mentor within and outside his department. He has received several college and university awards and was recently named the 2019 recipient of an ISU award recognizing graduate student mentoring.
Narasimhan, Rao named to National Academy of Inventors
The National Academy of Inventors is adding Balaji Narasimhan and Guru Rao as academy fellows. Narasimhan is an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering, the Vlasta Klima Balloun Faculty Chair in chemical biological engineering and director of Iowa State’s Nanovaccine Institute. His work is at the intersection of materials science, nanotechnology and medicine. Rao is an associate vice president for research whose work included engineering proteins for the nutritional enhancement of crops and designing proteins for resistance to insects and fungal pathogens. The academy cited Narasimhan’s work in nanomedicines and biomedical engineering and Rao's work in biochemistry.
