Wayne State University’s Board of Governors continued its long-standing tradition of recognizing faculty achievements at its meeting on April 26 by bestowing its annual Faculty Recognition Awards. This honor was awarded to five full-time faculty members who have shown remarkable achievements or accomplishments during the previous academic year.
“This annual recognition underscores the board’s dedication to promoting a culture of excellence and innovation among Wayne State’s faculty,” said Shirley Stancato, chair of the Board of Governors. “These awards not only show our appreciation for our faculty’s rigorous discipline; they incentivize them to pursue exceptional academic and professional achievements.”
Each recipient gets an award of $2,500. The award focuses on a specific work of merit completed within the 12-month period immediately preceding the award year, ensuring that the honors are both relevant and timely. Nominations can be submitted by individual faculty members or by a group of faculty members. Recipients were selected by an advisory committee of their peers, all of whom are previous winners.
“Academic excellence is the core of our mission,” said President Kimberly Andrews Espy, Ph.D. “These awardees are an excellent representation of Wayne State’s talented, diverse faculty who are preparing the next generation for the challenges facing our rapidly changing world. These outstanding faculty share their expertise broadly by disseminating through high impact publications, creations and other scholarly venues that have deep and broad local to global impact.”
This year’s recipients are:
Kidada Williams
Professor of history in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The Board of Governors recognized Williams for the publication of I Saw Death Coming: The History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023). Williams was nominated for the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction, one of the most prestigious literary honors in the country.
Maik Hüttemann
Professor at the School of Medicine’s Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics
The Board of Governors recognized Hüttemann for the publication of “Cytochrome c lysine acetylation regulates cellular respiration and cell death in ischemic skeletal muscle” (Nature Communications, 2023). Hüttemann has pioneered the discovery of regulatory protein modifications in mitochondria, particularly phosphorylation, which alters protein activity.
Daniel Isaksen
Professor of mathematics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The Board of Governors recognized Isaksen for the publication of “Stable homotopy group of spheres: From dimension 0 to 90” (Publications mathématiques de l’IHÉS, 2023). Isaksen and his collaborators’ work is the most significant advancement in modern topology seen in 50 years.
Michelle Jacobs
Associate professor of sociology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The Board of Governors recognized Jacobs for the publication of Indigenous Memory, Urban Reality: Stories of American Indian Relocation and Reclamation (New York University Press, 2023).
Daniel Kashian
Professor of biological sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The Board of Governors recognized Kashian for the publication of the fifth edition of Forest Ecology (Wiley Press, 2023). This textbook — the first edition of which was published in 1964 — is one of the most important sources for students, academics and forest practitioners to gain information about climate change, invasive species and ecological sustainability.