AUBURN – The National Science Foundation has selected a researcher in Auburn University's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering for the agency's award as one of America's top junior faculty members.

The NSF recently chose Virginia Davis, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Auburn, to receive the agency's Faculty Early Development CAREER Award. Limited to a few individuals each year, the award recognizes outstanding college and university faculty members in the early stages of their careers and supports their research and outreach activities with funding for five years.

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AUBURN – Twenty-three years after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Auburn University Professor and author James Hansen has helped produce a compelling book recounting exactly why the U.S. space program's first fatal in-flight accident occurred.

Hansen, professor of history and director of Auburn's Honors College, teamed up to write the new 626-page book "Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster" with Allan McDonald. McDonald was an engineer who warned NASA officials that Challenger's solid rocket motor could explode at ignition if launched that very cold morning on Jan. 28, 1986.

In the book, which was just released by the University Press of Florida, Hansen assists McDonald in telling how his words of warning were ignored and the fateful consequences of that decision.

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AUBURN – The Auburn University College of Business has received a gift from Wendy S. Wilson of Huntsville to establish a professorship endowment in honor of her first accounting professor, and current associate dean of undergraduate programs, Gary Waters. The endowment, in response to President Gogue's charge to create 81 new professorships campus-wide for existing faculty with exceptional merit, is the second to be secured by the College of Business in two months and the first to be fully funded.

The professorship will be called the Wilson Family Endowed Professorship until Waters retires from the College of Business, and then will be renamed the Dr. Gary Waters professorship. The dean of the College of Business will award the endowment to a professor who exhibits a strong commitment to students and provides a high quality of instruction, research and service. To make the endowment one of distinction, the university will match endowment earnings up to $7,500 in perpetuity.

"There are many people who have had great influence on my life and career and I am very pleased to honor them with this endowed professorship," said Wilson.

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AUBURN – The Auburn University Athletic Department and Tigers Unlimited recently announced the endowment of the Ralph "Shug" Jordan Professorship in memory and honor of the beloved Auburn coach.

During the recent A-Day festivities, Athletics Director Jay Jacobs made a special presentation to Ralph Jordan Jr. and Provost Mary Ellen Mazey, who will award the professorship to a deserving faculty member.

Jacobs said the professorship was established to support the academic mission of Auburn University and President Jay Gogue's initiative to increase professorships on campus.

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AUBURN – Hanqin Tian, Alumni Professor with Auburn University's School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, recently received the 2008 Global Change Science Prize for his groundbreaking work as an ecosystem scientist.

Tian was honored April 10 by the Ye DuZheng Global Change Science Prize Committee at the Chinese Academy of Sciences for his achievements in the field of global change science.

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AUBURN – Students and faculty from Auburn University will spearhead the inaugural European University Hunger Summit in Rome, Italy, April 23-24. The theme for the two-day event is "Universities Fighting World Hunger: New Directions for Students around the Globe."

Jay Gogue, president of Auburn University, and June Henton, dean of Auburn's College of Human Sciences, will participate in the opening ceremonies.

Students and representatives of organizations from around the globe will participate in the conference and will come from Belarus, Thailand, Ghana, Albania, Switzerland, Kenya, Gambia and Nepal, as well as the United States and Italy.

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AUBURN – Auburn University presented its highest awards for humanitarian service and recognized 12 outstanding graduating seniors during a recent ceremony.

Barry Burkhart, professor and chair of the department of psychology, and seniors Michael Ross Harper II and Haley Diane Walker received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Awards during a ceremony on April 14 at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center.

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AUBURN - After a national search, Auburn University President Jay Gogue has announced that Ainsley Carry has been named Vice President for Student Affairs. Carry comes to Auburn from Temple University, where he served as associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students.

"We are excited to welcome Dr. Carry to the Auburn family as he brings with him a demonstrated passion for working with students and student programs as well as developing student leaders," said Auburn University President Jay Gogue. "His tenure as an administrator at other Southeastern Conference institutions combined with his experience in the area of strategic planning will prove invaluable for leading Auburn's division of student affairs."

Carry, who will begin his new position June 15, has an extensive background in student affairs and is a strong advocate for student leadership and personal development.

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AUBURN – An Auburn University professor has received a $424,000 National Science Foundation grant for research in the fight against infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and anthrax, as well as staph infections.

Evert Duin, an assistant professor of biochemistry in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, is focusing his research on the different steps that biological cells use in making a group of lipids, called isoprenoids. These are fatty substances that are essential for the survival of all organisms including humans.

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AUBURN – An Auburn University psychology professor has been honored as one of the nation's top psychology educators.

William Buskist, Distinguished Professor in the Teaching of Psychology in Auburn's College of Liberal Arts, has been named by the American Psychological Foundation Board of Trustees as the recipient of the 2009 Charles L. Brewer Distinguished Teaching of Psychology Award. The award, which has been given annually since 1970, recognizes exemplary career contributions to the teaching of psychology and leadership in improving the teaching and learning of psychology.

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