Notables

Lisa Staiano-Coico, dean of the College of Human Ecology (CHE), has been appointed to a four-year term on the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. The council, which meets three times a year, is composed of leaders in the biological and medical sciences, education, health care and public affairs. Members of the council conduct the second level of peer review for research and research training grant applications assigned to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), one of the National Institutes of Health. Council members also offer advice and recommendations on policy and program development, program implementation, evaluation and other matters of significance to the mission and goals of NIGMS. Staiano-Coico, who became CHE dean this past July, also serves as professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell and professor of microbiology in surgery and dermatology and of public health at the Weill Cornell Medical College. Her research involves the biology of skin cells, from the basic level through applications to wound healing and burn treatment.

Cornell lecturer and historian Carol Kammen has been named Public Historian of the Year by the Regents of the University of the State of New York. Kammen, who is also the Tompkins County historian and a local history columnist for The Ithaca Journal, was named for her outstanding accomplishments on the village, town and county levels, and for her contribution nationally to the study and use of local history. In handing out the award, the Regents cited Kammen as a tireless mentor to town and village historians in Tompkins County and elsewhere and for her work as a senior lecturer at Cornell. Kammen recently worked with Tompkins County's municipal historians to produce and publish "Place Names of Tompkins County," a work on the origins of place names. She is a frequent writer for Heritage, the magazine of the New York State Historical Association and for History News, published by the American Association for State and Local History. Among her other publications are Cornell: Glorious to View, The Peopling of Tompkins County: A Social History, On Doing Local History, now in its second edition, and The Encyclopedia of Local History. As Historian of the Year, Kammen also will serve next year as chair of the Commissioner of Education's Council on State and Local History. The council advises the state Education Department on its services to local historians.

Larry Hamilton, emeritus professor of forest conservation, has been honored by being awarded the King Albert I Gold Medal and Award Certificate for "playing a fundamental role in the worldwide conservation of mountain areas in connection with sustainable development of mountain communities." The investiture took place in a small 14th-century church in the Swiss Alps village of Pontresina. This was an area where King Albert loved to climb as a release from royal duties. He lost his life climbing alone on a mountain, and was honored by admirers and guides through the setting up of a Memorial Foundation in Zurich in 1994. It makes awards every other year for outstanding achievement in mountain conservation and mountaineering. Hamilton retired from Cornell in 1981 and took up a position as senior research fellow at the East West Center in Hawaii. Retiring from that position in 1993, he moved to Charlotte, Vt., where he is now the volunteer tree warden. He has been a volunteer with the World Commission on Protected Areas/IUCN since 1985. This past August, Hamilton was awarded the Distiguished Scientist Award by the University of Hawaii for his pioneer work in Mountain Cloud Forest Conservation.

The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) has honored William R. Sims, professor of facility planning and management in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis, with its 2004 Distinguished Educator Award of Excellence. Sims, received the award last fall in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Distinguished Educator Award recognizes excellence in developing curriculum and instructing students in subjects related to facility management at a college, university or institute. Sims is principal and co-director of the International Workplace Studies Program at Cornell, established in 1986. Sims is also the founder of Cornell's Facility Management degree programs. Active in FM education since 1980, he was IFMA's first academic director, serving from 1984 to 1988. He is currently adviser to 26 undergraduate FM students and nine graduate students, and initiated the Cornell IFMA student chapter.