Awarding Excellence in
the College of Arts & Sciences

Professor King designs learning situations so students struggle with data, become more curious and gain a better understanding of how research is done. He brings in contemporary examples that have personal relevance for students. He creates an informal, friendly atmosphere, posing interesting questions, and challenging students’ opinions to hone their critical thinking skills.

Students praise him for his infectious passion for his discipline, his zeal for getting them to master difficult material, and his ability to ignite a love of learning. One student wrote, “I learned more from Professor King about what it means to be a responsible, productive, and effective teacher-scholar than I did from any of my other formal training.” Another wrote, “Dr. King is the most wise, thoughtful, caring and supportive teacher and mentor I have ever seen. His commitment to the highest standards has been inspiring and motivating.”

Professor King’s commitment to teaching extends beyond the classroom. He has supervised seven undergraduate internships, directed six independent studies, frequently mentors in the department’s Honors program and shares responsibility of departmental student advisement. He has served on over a dozen comprehensive examination committees, chaired three M.A. committees, directed five graduate independent studies, chaired seven dissertation committees and served on seven others.

He was also a ‘charter member’ of the Teaching Committee in Sociology, has organized a presentation on “Teaching Large Lectures”, and has hosted brown-bag sessions for graduate students on topics such as networking and negotiating the job market.

He has served on the UAlbany Committee on Retention, Teaching and Learning and Integration of Student and Academic Life, and mentors undergraduate students in the Educational Opportunity Program. He has also developed a Freshman Seminar designed to introduce students to social science while helping them transition from high school to college. Click to hide.

Students praise her mentorship, rigor and professionalism. Many say this is the combination that makes her a superior teacher. She incorporates her research in her lectures at all levels. Even in large classes, she engages students by talking with them as if it were a personal scholarly conversation. She encourages students to debate divergent perspectives rooted in research, and treats them as emerging professionals.

Professor Sutherland works closely with her graduate students as they prepare papers for journals and national conferences. As a result, they often see her as a ‘mentor for life’, contacting her for advice and guidance on their professional careers long after they have graduated. Under her mentorship, students have won national and international prizes for their publications, and many teach at prestigious universities.

Professor Sutherland serves on many dissertation committees and advises UAlbany graduates completing doctoral degrees at other institutions. She has served as advisor for master’s students in Rockefeller College, the Departments of Latin American, Caribbean and US. Latino Studies, and Psychology.

She is also an active scholar, having authored or co-authored over 30 articles and book reviews, as well as two books. She is also a reviewer for several journals and presses. Professor Sutherland has received the highest recognition by the National Association of Black Psychologists, the Distinguished Psychologist Award for Scholarly Advancement of Black Psychology. Click to hide.

In all of her courses, Ms. Van Acker raises ethical and other issues that photographers regularly face. Her aim is not just to teach hands-on photography skills, but to give students a context that will sustain them for their entire career. She ensures that students learn to embrace the hard questions, and at the same time remain sensitive to individual differences that exist in a multi-cultural society.

Ms. Van Acker takes the time to conduct individual conferences with her students, meeting them where they are and then spurring them on to higher levels of performance. Students praise her knowledge, professionalism, and high standards. Most of all, they are impressed with her passionate belief in them as individuals, and with her tireless encouragement to work hard for success.

She has achieved a reputation as a challenging but very fair instructor who will work diligently to help her students, and whose enthusiasm for photo-journalism is contagious. She asks her students to produce a multi-media project nearly every week—a very ambitious schedule of assignments—and then she works actively with them to ensure they can pull it off.

Former students are grateful to Ms. Van Acker for teaching them the most modern technology and the skills they actually needed when they got out into the field. They report that their own investigative reporting is inspired by Ms. Van Acker’s sense of ethics. They each say that the rigorous preparation she provided, and the independence and creativity she fostered as they prepared projects has had a lasting impact on their personal and career success. Click to hide.

Students praise Ms. Yeh’s patience and efforts to make sure they understand course content. Because she teaches language courses, her classes meet every weekday, yet she still goes well beyond her office hours, regularly meeting students individually outside of class. Students enjoy her classes tremendously, and most of them — inspired by Ms. Yeh — eventually go to China and Taiwan for advanced study.

Students praise Ms. Yeh’s high expectations and her insistence that students can do more than they expect of themselves. She is patient and thorough, and succeeds at delivering rigorous and demanding material in ways that resonate with students.

As one put it, “Sometimes students take a class that they hear is difficult and challenging, but worthwhile, because of an extraordinary professor. For me, Chinese was that difficult class and Ms. Yeh was that extraordinary professor.” Students have taken part in speech contests and competed for and won scholarships for study abroad programs because Ms. Yeh expected them to be able to do so.

Ms. Yeh shows her devotion to students and student learning in other ways. She has helped establish UAlbany’s prestigious study abroad program in Sichuan, China. With an average of 20 students attending every summer, the number of Chinese majors and minors in the department has doubled in recent years, largely due to her efforts.

She serves as the faculty counselor of the Chinese Student Association. She is enrolled in a Ph.D. program on Curriculum and Instruction and expects to earn this degree this year. Click to hide.

Mr. Qneibi’s students describe him as enthusiastic, approachable, friendly, fair and devoted to student success. They also say that he is determined to hold them to high expectations.

Students commend him for his ability to put them at ease, and the valuable study skills they have learned from him. One student wrote, “When first enrolling in the course, I was nervous, knowing the difficulty of the material. Despite my apprehension, Mohammad made this course highly enjoyable.”

Another wrote, “Mohammad always held me to a high standard of learning…he never failed to make me work harder to reach my true potential.” They praise his ability to create examples of increasing difficulty to prepare them well for exams. They particularly appreciate his talent for helping them visualize chemical reactions by creating charts and figures from which they can draw conclusions.

Mr. Qneibi’s interactive style, involving students in discussions and getting them to pose questions, shows his deep desire to see them succeed. He regularly spends time working individually with students, in the lab and outside of class. He talks with them about their interests and encourages them to take the next steps in their own research and education. Former students, now in graduate schools across the nation, enthusiastically wrote to describe the inspiration they received to continue their studies even after they were no longer in Mr. Qneibi’s classes. Click to hide.

Under her leadership of East Asian Studies, the department witnessed substantial growth. It received a $1.9 million Freeman Foundation Grant; a Korean Foundation Faculty Enhancement Grant and a Japan Foundation Library grant.

In the College of Arts and Sciences she has co-chaired the Tenure and Promotion Committee, and served as Vice-Chair and then Chair of the CAS Faculty Council.

At the University level, she served on the Undergraduate Academic Council; was Vice-Chair and Chair of the University Senate; chaired the Governance Council; and chaired the University Policy and Planning Council. She has served on the University Council; the NY SUNY 2020 proposal review committee; the Provost’s Strategic Planning Implementation Steering Committee; the Presidential Search Committee and she co-chaired the Presidential Transition Advisory Committee.

She also serves in ways that directly affect the experience of students: she chaired the Sub-Committee on Honors and the Curriculum, and the Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community Responsibility. She has presented in the “Tenure Trek” series in an effort to help junior faculty succeed. She finds time to serve her discipline nationally as outside reviewer for tenure cases and peer reviewer for academic journals and presses. She is a member of the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources. An accomplished scholar, she continues to maintain an active publishing schedule.

Professor Fessler’s determination to conduct reasoned and collegial discussions, even in turbulent times, is outstanding. Her clear-headed composure, her insight and candidness help committee work go forward productively. She is fearless, selfless, and concerned about equity. She takes seriously the responsibilities of leadership, addressing even the most controversial issues in a straightforward, direct and honest manner. Click to hide.

He helped frame the department’s responses to the general education program, taking care of everything that sucha significant change in academic policy entails in the life of a department.

At the University level, he has served as Senator; Chair of the Committee on General Education; Chair of the Undergraduate Academic Council; member of the General Education Assessment Committee; Chair of a subcommittee of the Strategic Planning Implementation process; member of the CLUE Planning Group on Promotion and Tenure and Co-Chair of the Travel Funds Committee.

Rick’s sense of integrity and equity, his willingness to step up, and his sense of humor make him one of the most sought-after faculty members when new groups are being formed. He takes on complex projects, winning respect by focusing on the University’s mission, working inordinately hard, and courageously standing up to have the collegial conversations needed for positive change.

He always aims at what is best for students. His lecture for the Explore UAlbany program challenges students to think critically about their own stereotypes. He helped to create a Living-Learning Community for freshmen interested in pre-law—developing co-curricular offerings, ensuring that freshmen take the right History courses, and finding faculty and graduate student mentors.

At the same time, Rick is an established scholar of French history and noted teacher. National organizations, including the Social Science Research Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and many journals ask for his help as reviewer, showing the high regard historians have for his intellectual contributions. His skill as an instructor earned him the Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 2011. Click to hide.

During the last decade, he expanded the scope of his research to include Combinatorial Representation Theory, becoming one of the leaders in this field as well. He is an outstanding researcher with wide mathematical interests and a curious and original mind. His broad background and pleasant personality enable him to communicate with scholars from different areas of mathematics, sharing his insights and appreciating theirs.

Professor Lenart has published over 30 research papers in refereed journals, including several papers in top journals such as the American Journal of Mathematics, Advances in Mathematics, and the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society. He has tremendous momentum in his current research, with several papers submitted for publication. The quality of his research results is exceptionally high and widely praised.

Individual research grants are extremely competitive in the area of pure mathematics, and professor Lenart’s funding history is especially strong and impressive. He has had continuous support from the National Science Foundation since 2004.

He has been invited to present his research at numerous national and international conferences, and at the top mathematics research institutes in the world. He has been invited by the NSF to serve on proposal review panels, and co-organized several special workshops and sessions for the American Mathematical Society. Because of his strong background in computer science, Professor Lenart has also written software packages that are used by his students, and his worldwide colleagues to tackle difficult numerical problems that arise in their research.

Professor Lenart is not only an outstanding researcher, he is also a valued teacher and mentor, and a good citizen in the broad mathematical community. Click to hide.

Professor Petrukhina's work is at the very forefront of her field. She has applied fundamental research to practical problems relevant to the environment and energy. She focuses on the chemistry of a new class of carbonaceous molecules. Her recent work — published in the journal Science — established a new paradigm for lithium ion encapsulation, making possible breakthroughs in energy storage and electronics based on novel carbon-based materials.

Her work on portable chemical sensors for hydrocarbon detection has the potential to improve the environment and life for communities. It will lower the cost of construction budgets and improve health and environmental safety through monitoring of hydrocarbons in groundwater and soil.

Since 2001, Professor Petrukhina has attracted over $2 million in external research funds, including a prestigious NSF Career Award. She has published two book chapters; received two patents; written three major reviews; and published 85 articles in top notch scientific journals. In the past year alone, she has published 15 new manuscripts.

She has a world-wide and world-class record of invited lectures and seminars at respected institutions, and professional service as conference chair and editor.

Professor Petrukhina is also known as an excellent mentor. She created a program for training young chemists and has mentored 15 graduate students, 11 postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists, and over 20 undergraduate students, many of whom have gone on to pursue Ph.D.s at prestigious universities.

She works toward greater participation of underrepresented groups in her research programs. She strongly encourages women and minorities into careers in chemistry and actively seeks funding for them. Click to hide.

As the sole support staff for the Department of Music, Ms. Socha serves as the primary administrative staff person, bookkeeper, and main contact. She maintains the website; constructs eye-catching recruitment brochures which are displayed in high schools in the region; and prepares creatively designed posters for the department’s colloquia. She oversees the work-study students, ensuring they are doing appropriate work, and they come back year after year because of the positive experience they have with her.

Her colleagues are in awe of her command of office procedures and her efficiency, thoroughness and professionalism. She has built a beautifully organized and efficient apparatus for helping our students and faculty.

Ms. Socha has designed and presented a workshop for the all-secretary meetings in the College of Arts and Sciences, receiving enthusiastic reviews and grateful thanks from the Dean’s Office.

When the secretary in another department left her position, Ms. Socha cheerfully added the purchasing and scheduling duties of an entirely new department to her workload until a new secretary could be found. The Chair of that department wrote feelingly, “...her aplomb rescued me from panic and kept things moving smoothly even when they had every excuse to fall apart.”

Faculty, students and staff consider Ms. Socha an indispensable member of the College of Arts and Sciences team. Click to hide.