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College of Liberal Arts & Sciences news
Three-star general visits KU students
Alumni awarded for distinguished service
Three-star general visits KU students
Three-star general Lt. Gen. William Caldwell visited KU students Nov. 15 to discuss Iraq, the military, U.S. foreign policy and anything else his audience asked of him. His visit was part of his initiative to improve the cooperation between KU and his post.
About 150 students heard Caldwell’s remarks, and several asked questions concerning the country during the height of an unpopular war. “They had some tough political questions. I mean, they were well-prepared, thought-out, tough questions that you would take and talk about for hours in a classroom environment,” Caldwell said in a Wichita Eagle article.
Alumni awarded for distinguished service
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences on Nov. 19 announced the recipients of the 2007-’08 Alumni Distinguished Achievement Awards, recognizing outstanding alumni and their achievements and involvement in the community and in KU.
The four alumni to be honored next spring are Mary Dawson of Pittsburgh, James Gunn of Lawrence, Thomas Rudkin of Los Gatos, Calif., and George Sheldon of Chapel Hill, N.C.
“It’s an honor to recognize this year’s four College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award recipients,” said Dean Joseph E. Steinmetz. “Their achievements have made a tremendous impact on the world and we in the college are proud to recognize their contributions at this time as graduates of our outstanding academic programs.”
Mary Dawson received her doctorate in paleontology from the department of zoology, which is now part of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, in 1957. At the time she earned her doctorate, very few women received doctoral degrees in any subject, especially the sciences. Currently she is an acclaimed paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, and she serves as curator emeritus of vertebrate paleontology and as an adjunct professor in the department of geology and planetary sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.
James Gunn received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1947 and a master’s in English in 1951, and has gone on to become widely acknowledged as one of the most influential authors, scholars and educators in science fiction. He has written 28 books, more than 100 published stories, and has edited 12 books. Currently Gunn is a professor emeritus of English at KU and director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction. Earlier this year, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named Gunn the 2007 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master.
Thomas Rudkin received a KU bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1973 and a master’s in computer science from the University of Wisconsin. Currently Tom serves on KU’s International Programs advisory board, as well as the Biodiversity Institute/Natural History Museum advisory board. He served as one of two engineers who wrote the first version of the software program PowerPoint, and has also worked at Intel and Microsoft as a self-employed information designer.
George Sheldon, a Salina native and past student body president of KU, graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1957 and earned his medical degree in 1961. Sheldon is one of fewer than 20 surgeons in the past 100 years to be president or chair of all the major surgical organizations, such as the American College of Surgeons and the American Surgical Association. He currently is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science and has an Honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. For the past 17 years, Sheldon also has served as chair of surgery and professor of surgery and social medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He was a fellow in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic, resident in surgery at the University of California-San Francisco and fellow in surgical biology at Harvard Medical School.
The College will recognize the achievements and extraordinary contributions of these four recipients during the annual Deans Club Banquet at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 11, in the Kansas Union Ballroom.
Visit the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Web site for more information.
