Duncan Award Honors Professors

Duncan Award Honors Professors

BY DANA DURBIN
Rice News Staff
May 7, 1998

Professors David Nirenberg and Mark Wiesner are the first ever recipients of
the

Charles W. Duncan Jr. Achievement Award for Outstanding Faculty

.

The new award is named after former chairman of the Rice Board of Governors
Charles Duncan and honors faculty who demonstrate outstanding scholarship and
teaching.

Nirenberg is an associate professor of history and director of the Center for
the Study of Cultures, and Wiesner is a professor in the Department of Environmental
Science and Engineering.

All full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty with 10 years or less experience
from the time of their appointment as an assistant professor were eligible for
the award, which includes a medal and a $5,000 prize. Nominations were sought
by department chairs and forwarded to deans, who each chose one candidate to
nominate for the award. President Malcolm Gillis made the final selections based
on recommendations from the Deans Council.

Wiesner, a graduate of Coe College with a master’s from the University of Iowa
and a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University, has been at Rice for nearly 10
years. His research and teaching is in the area of physical-chemical processes.

He has authored more than 50 technical papers and book chapters and currently
is an associate editor of the Journal of Environmental Engineering, ASCE.

Wiesner has taught courses through the residential colleges on environmental
topics and served as an adviser to the ENVI 490 course, which included a campus
environmental audit as part of an undergraduate research project.

Working with undergraduates has been a positive experience for Wiesner, who
said he has enjoyed "tapping into their energy and enthusiasm."

Nirenberg, in his sixth year at Rice, was also pleased to receive the award,
noting that it is unique in that it rewards both teaching and research.

His research has been in the area of Muslim, Christian and Jewish interaction
in Medieval Europe, and he has also researched violence in the middle ages.
His 1996 book "Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the
Middle Ages," published by Princeton University Press, received the Premio
del Rey Prize of the American Historical Association.

Nirenberg, who did his undergraduate and graduate work at Princeton, said that
this year was the first time he taught a course in his own specialty. He learned
a lot from his students’ papers, even asking some students for their bibliographies.

His work in the classroom, as a researcher, and as director for the Center
for the Study of Cultures is closely related.

"Teaching allows me to understand the importance of the others things
I do," he said.