She has sung in all of the world's finest opera houses, including 20 seasons at the New York City Met. When she enters a room, it is said, people are immediately aware of her charismatic personality; and when she sings, they know that they are in the presence of an artist.
Ghetti, long known as an outstanding clinician and teacher in neuropathology, has, in recent years, been working with various teams of collaborators and making dramatic contributions to the understanding of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and the family of pathologies that includes "mad cow disease."
Hanson is, say her colleagues in experimental high energy physics, "a real powerhouse of a scientist," "a splendid physicist" "and a world leader in her field." She is currently involved with a team of IU researchers who are part of an experimental team at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Physics.
Early in his career, after Johnston learned of a new, reliable way to measure bone mass, he switched from studying rats to studying people. That switch has led to research -- praised by colleagues for its creative design, precision and rigor -- that has filled in many gaps in medical knowledge concerning the study of osteoporosis.
Gary S. Insch is a doctoral student in international business/strategic management at the School of Business who likes to takes his love of theater into the classroom. He works to personalize the ideas by helping the students play an exchange-rate simulation game, or having them react to a recent article on the topic from the Wall Street Journal or telling them a story about how roller-coaster exchange rates affected him as a missionary in Chile.
Jean Harold Shin, also a doctoral student in sociology, is known in his department for an engaging pedagogical style and the comprehensiveness of his lectures. To explain issues of social change and the struggles of diverse social groups, Shin sometimes relates to his classes his own experiences as an Asian American in this society. The students gain lasting insights.
Whether serving dinner to his students before they deliver their "after-dinner speeches" or positioning himself on the floor to participate in a freshman's speech on yoga, Andrews inspires his students to succeed. "He challenges us with his expectations, encourages us through a friendly and interactive classroom and makes us want to shine -- to do our absolute best," writes a former student.
From the day he was offered a faculty position at the IU School of Medicine, Einterz made it clear that involvement in medical education in the developing world was vitally important to his vision of success as a teacher and clinician. He began acting on this vision immediately, asking to receive only half his regular salary in his first year of teaching so that he could use the remainder to support himself and his family the following year while he worked in community development in rural Haiti. On his return from that country, he was determined to involve his colleagues in bettering medical education in the developing world. What has developed is a collaboration with Moi University Medical School in Eldoret, Kenya.
Walter Nugent, a University of Notre Dame historian, notes that Wilson has expanded IU's unusual tradition of internationalism that Herman Wells initiated and John Ryan continued. "To an exceptional degree and in exceptional ways," Nugent writes, "George has combined the ability to see, indeed to create, big pictures and large structures which last through many years, as well as a passion for detail that makes good things happen."
In 1973, Needleman, a professor in California, was in Chile in the months preceding the military overthrow of the government. The injustices she witnessed there inspired her to work outside academia for several years. Then she found the job of her dreams at IU Northwest, "to teach workers to stand up for themselves on the job, to understand their workplace and history, and to develop skills to be more effective representatives of their peers." In 1992, Needleman began to create Swingshift College, working with education coordinators at area steel mills.
One indispensable component in Tilley's success is his classroom approach. In their evaluations, students write appreciatively about the humor, the excitement, the clever analogies, the anecdotes and above all, the sensitivity that leavens his discussions of hard-to-grasp questions. "With enough practice," Tilley explains, "virtually any student can become proficient in elementary logic or decision theory."
Woodcock has, as one former student writes, a rare talent for conveying "that the subject matter, while important in and of itself, is more than knowledge, that it is a porthole into the wisdom of life," whether he is teaching creative nonfiction to a small group of graduate students, guiding several hundred undergraduates through an introductory literature course or leading a Freshman Intensive Seminar. Kenneth Johnston, chair of the Department of English, describes Woodcock's ability to affect lives this way: "John moves students: time and time again, one reads in his students' comments about fundamental changes that have occurred in their values and attitudes as a result of taking his courses."
"Is everyone happy?" It's a question that Alan Kostelecky's students grow accustomed to hearing as he lectures on the intricacies of particles, quantum field theory, electricity and magnetism, and gravity. A puzzled expression or two may prompt Kostelecky to ask the question, and the subsequent clarifications and discussions result in both smiles of understanding and sighs of relief. He attributes his teaching effectiveness to several basic principles, one of which is considering the student's frame of reference.
Within the chaos of academe, the voice of reason has a place of honor. Such is the case with Christoph Lohmann, whose humanistic efforts to confront problems and solve them equitably have earned him a reputation as an indispensable member of the university community, say colleagues. In his long service as associate chair of the department, Lohmann served as "the even keel of integrity which has kept us steady on our course during the inevitably rocky patches that a large and contentious department regularly stumbles into," writes department chair Kenneth Johnston."
Thomas is the sole fine arts professor on the East campus, but if initiative, enthusiasm and direction could be exhibited, his work would fill several art museums. IU East Division of Humanities and Fine Arts Chair Judith Roman-Royer says: "He may be the only college professor around who drives a van all over the state in his spare time so that IU students, faculty and local artists have more opportunities to show their work and learn about the art world."
He is co-director of the national Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention and was recently named the 1996 Outstanding Researcher by the IU School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. It is Torabi's record of professional service to health education that is his ultimate achievement. Since 1985, he has held almost every leadership role with the American Lung Association at the state and national levels.
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