Drezek, Hebl named Duncan winners

Drezek, Hebl named Duncan winners

BY MIKE WILLIAMS 
Special to the Rice News

Spring is doubly delightful for Rice professors Rebekah Drezek and Michelle ”Mikki” Hebl, who not only earned honors in other categories but will also share this year’s Charles W. Duncan Jr. Achievement Award for Outstanding Faculty, which recognizes accomplishment in scholarship and teaching.

REBEKAH DREZEK	MIKKI HEBL

Drezek, associate professor in bioengineering and in electrical and computer engineering, also earned the Presidential Mentoring Award this year.

”It is an honor,” said Drezek of the awards. ”The opportunity to work with undergraduate and graduate students — and the dynamism this creates — is what sets a university apart from other research settings. We have some of the most creative, intelligent and enthusiastic students in the world at Rice, and I feel so lucky to be able to work with them.

”In experimental science, and especially biomedical research, where labs are relatively large, it’s the students — not the faculty — who generate the success of the group.”

Drezek’s research takes her and her students to the cutting edge of medical diagnostics, using new optical imaging technologies to detect, diagnose and monitor the molecular signatures of precancerous conditions and malignancies through minimally invasive procedures. One goal is to reduce the need for invasive, expensive and painful biopsies.

The Duncan award co-recipient Hebl, associate professor of psychology and management, also won this year’s Nicolas Salgo Distinguished Teacher Award, adding to the many honors she’s earned during her years at Rice.

But getting the news is never less than sweet.

”I feel honored to receive this award and to share it with someone so impressive as Rebekah,” she said. ”It is extremely nice to be honored for both teaching and research, and I thank the committee who chose both of us.”

An applied social psychologist, Hebl studies the forms discrimination takes in social interactions and organizations. Hebl will begin her 10th year at Rice next year, and she delights in the fact that ”Rice has always been and continues to be an excellent fit for me.”