CDE extends a huge congratulations to several affiliates for their recent achievements—from new positions to awards and honors—bestowed by both the university and external organizations in 2020.
Lonnie Berger became the Associate Vice Chancellor for Research for the Social Sciences in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education in July 2020. Berger, former director of the Institute for Research on Poverty, replaced Nora Cate Schaeffer who served as interim Associate Vice Chancellor during the 2019–20 academic year. In this leadership role, Berger guides social science research on campus by supporting faculty recruitment and retention, providing grant matches, managing internal research competitions, and coordinating faculty awards and professorships.
Three faculty affiliates received honors and awards from the university. Marah Curtis was one of seven professors named Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor, an award that recognizes outstanding contributions to scholarship, teaching, and service. The professorship provides five years of flexible funding. John Eason received a Vilas Faculty Mid-Career Investigator Award, which recognizes excellence in research and teaching and provides three years of flexible research funding. For her exceptional contributions to teaching, research, and service, Monica Grant received a Leon D. Epstein Distinguished Faculty Research Award from the College of Letters & Science.
Outside the university, Katherine Curtis, Malia Jones, and Daniel Veroff of the Applied Population Laboratory are part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers that received the National Excellence in Multistate Research Award from the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The group, comprised of 39 investigators from 28 colleges and universities, conducts research on the most pressing demographic, economic, social, and environmental challenges faced by rural communities. Over the past three years, the team has produced hundreds of peer-reviewed publications, secured over $13 million in research funding, and delivered over 200 presentations to stakeholders—including Congress and the National Institutes of Health.
Rebecca Myerson was selected as a UW Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) scholar. The BIRCWH program’s mission is to improve women’s health by developing a scientific workforce capable of leading independently funded research programs. UW BIRCWH is a trans-NIH collaborative effort administered by the Office of Research on Women’s Health. Myerson’s BIRCWH-sponsored research examines the impacts of Medicare and Medicaid policy on gender disparities in cancer screening and mortality outcomes, with a focus on colorectal and lung cancer.
Jonathan Patz was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine in recognition of his pioneering work on climate and population health. Patz is the John P. Holton Chair of Health and the Environment in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Health Sciences. For 14 years, Patz served as the lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was established in 1988 by the United Nations General Assembly. The panel shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.
Betty Thomson, former CDE director (1999–2004) and Professor of Sociology Emerita, received the European Association for Award for Population Studies for her outstanding achievements in the field of population research over an impressive career spanning more than 30 years. The jury affirmed that “Thomson has made a major contribution both in her own research area, and also to the wider discipline.” From 2008 to 2019, Thomson served as the director of the Linnaeus Center on Social Policy and Family Dynamics at Stockholm University, where she has been a part of the Demography Unit since 2004. She divides her time between Sweden and Madison.