News
Four from College Receive University Awards
Every year, Penn State recognizes faculty and staff for the highest levels of academic excellence, outstanding leadership and meritorious service. This year, four faculty members and one staff member from the College of Arts and Architecture— the most winners from any one academic unit— were among the honorees.
Excellence in Advising Award
Joyce Buck, Division of Undergraduate Studies (DUS)
programs coordinator, is one of two recipients of the
2005 Excellence in Advising Award. Established by the
Undergraduate Student
Government’s Academic
Assembly, it acknowledges
excellence in advising,
academic and career guidance,
enthusiasm and assistance
to students in decision-
making and goalsetting.
Buck, who has been with the College of Arts and Architecture since 1992, began her advising career at Penn State in 1986 in the College of the Liberal Arts. As an adviser, she says she must remember students become educated one at a time and that, regardless of her role as adviser, she and her advisees are equal as human beings. Buck notes she talks with students at all points of their educations and always tries to focus on each person’s humanity and circumstances.
Buck is currently chair of the DUS Programs Coordinators at Penn State and chair of the Research Committee of the National Academic Advising Association. Her students say they value her dedication and loyalty to them and her profession. Known for always making time for advisees, students say they appreciate Buck’s willingness to guide them through their time at Penn State and open windows they never realized existed.“I strive to learn about each student, to help solve a problem, to inspire them to persist in becoming educated,” says Buck. “I try to share my joy of learning, in experiencing the world and in spending time with people who are becoming educated while using my knowledge of Penn State and higher education. I try to do for them what I want to be done for my family and me.”Buck holds an M.S. in educational psychology from Penn State and a B.S. in chemistry and secondary education from the State University of New York College at Cortland.
Faculty Scholar Medal
Maureen A. Carr, professor of music theory, is the recipient
of the 2005 Penn State Faculty Scholar Medal
for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts and Humanities.
These awards are
given to recognize scholarly
or creative excellence
in each of five areas: arts
and humanities, engineering,
health and life sciences,
physical sciences,
and social and behavioral
sciences.
Carr receives her award for her books, Multiple Masks: Neoclassicism in Stravinsky’s Dramatic Works on Greek Subjects (University of Nebraska Press, 2002) and Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat (A-R editions, in press), which position her as an authority on Stravinsky’s musical sketches and one of the leading scholars on the music of Stravinsky. Her research has been conducted primarily in Switzerland at the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel. In addition, she has worked at archives in Winterthur, Lausanne, London and Paris. She has received grants from the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the College of Arts and Architecture, the American Association of University Women and Pro Helvetia.
She has presented papers at national and international conferences in Belgium, England and Ireland (June 2005). This summer, she will continue her research in European archives, for a new book addressing the collaboration between Stravinsky and Picasso for“Pulcinella.” In the fall semester, she will be in residence at the Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities.
Carr has a B.A. from Marywood College, an M.F.A. from Rutgers and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She has served on several national and regional committees related to the field of music theory. In 1995, she received the College of Arts and Architecture’s Outstanding Teaching Award. In 1998, she was named a Distinguished Alumna by the University of Wisconsin at Madison School of Music and in 2004 received a Marywood University Professional Achievement Award.
President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration
Loukas N. Kalisperis, professor of architecture, has
been awarded the 2005 President’s Award for Excellence
in Academic Integration, which is given to a fulltime
faculty member who
has exhibited extraordinary achievement in the
integration of the
University’s three-point
mission of teaching, research
or creative accomplishments
and service.
The award was established in 1996 to recognize faculty members who have excelled in all three areas of their professions. Since joining the College of Arts and Architecture faculty in 1983 and beginning work on his M.S. in architectural engineering, Kalisperis has been instrumental in the development and instruction of numerous architecture courses at various levels. His research, meanwhile, has centered on his interdisciplinary education in architectural design and information systems, most recently on applications of virtual reality.
Kalisperis is a co-creator of the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture’s Immersive Environments Lab, a joint venture with Penn State’s Information Technology Services (ITS) Visualization Group, which has become an integral part of the architecture curriculum, helping students to visualize their designs using virtual reality technology. In 2000, Apple honored Kalisperis as a distinguished educator for innovative integration of technology in the curriculum. Currently, Kalisperis is the senior research scholar with the ITS Visualization Group and heads the architecture graduate program.
A native of Greece, Kalisperis received his general certificate of education in advanced physics and applied mathematics from the College of Arts and Technology in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, before earning his B.S. in architecture at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, N.Y. He holds an M.S. in architectural engineering (environmental/solar option) and Ph.D. in architectural design and data systems from Penn State. Kalisperis has served as a visiting professor at universities in Brazil, Mexico and Greece.
Teaching Fellow Award
James Kalsbeek, associate professor of architecture,
was selected as one of two Penn State Teaching
Fellows for 2005. The award honors distinguished
teaching and provides incentive
for teaching excellence
at the University.
Teaching Fellows participate in workshops and symposia, give presentations on teaching techniques and engage in other initiatives that promote effective teaching practices. A Penn State faculty member since 1990, Kalsbeek teaches first-year architectural design studios, architectural theory courses and currently a seminar titled The Last Dance: Architectural Hospice and the Palliative Care of Buildings. He is perhaps best known for the annual Campus Construction Project, a design-build exercise he conceived and developed in which first-year students build full-scale structures and experience the entirety of the architectural process from concept to realization. In 1996, this project won a national teaching award from the Associated Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
Committed to enhancing the sense of community within his department, Kalsbeek has initiated several departmental social events that have become traditions, including the annual architectural costume parade for first-year students and a department-wide pumpkin carving competition, both taking place around Halloween. In 2002, he instituted the Engineering Units Birthday Party, an event that celebrates the history and significance of the buildings where architecture students spend so much of their time. Kalsbeek’s research interests are in the area of architectural history and theory, specializing in the relationship between architecture and memory and the mnemonic function of buildings and places. His ongoing research in Rome examines sites significant in the history of the ancient memory arts.
A registered architect, Kalsbeek’s professional work has focused on projects of renovation and reuse. Also an experienced photographer and illustrator, he has exhibited his work in a variety of venues and has done illustration work for the A&E documentary series Ancient Mysteries. Kalsbeek received the College of Arts and Architecture’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 1995. He holds a master’s degree in architecture and a bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Cincinnati.
