BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University students recently voted James House the 2011 Professor of the Year in the annual election coordinated by Student Senate.

House, who taught at Illinois State for over 30 years, has been with the Illinois Wesleyan Chemistry Department as an adjunct professor since 1997.  Since then, House has contributed to his field by publishing many textbooks including Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry (Brooks Cole, 2001) and Inorganic Chemistry (Academic Press, 2008).

House, who studied for eight years in a one-room-schoolhouse in Benton, Ill., has been interested in chemistry since the fourth grade when he stumbled across a picture of a molecular structure in an encyclopedia. While in school, he also developed a desire to educate and credits the schoolhouse teacher with setting an example of how to teach with passion.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – “Under water/ leaves are paws, ferns are wings/ and your mother’s skirt is an orange flame/ melting the sap from the pool’s pine edge.” So reads a line from Joanne Diaz’s book of poems, The Lessons (Silverfish Review Press, 2011), winner of the 2009 Gerald Cable First Book Award, and listed as one of the Poetry Foundation’s Small Press Distribution February Best Sellers.

Many of Diaz’s poems in her first published novel weave a tale that place the reader in the middle of the narrator’s thoughts, as if capturing a personal moment. “Some of the poems are about family relationships, some about the speaker’s travels, some about the experience of illness, recovery and sometimes death,” she said.

Several of the pieces in the book are inspired directly from her life and Boston upbringing. The title poem “The Lessons” recalls childhood swim lessons, complete with the instructor calling the children “Back to the watah!” Influences also infuse the poem “Epigram for the Boston Accent,” which brings together Diaz’s love of ancient Roman writer Martial and her love of Boston – even playing off playwright Oscar Wilde’s reference to the city as a ‘paradise of prigs.’

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University’s Professor of Chemistry Ram Mohan has been named the 2011 Chemist of the Year by the Illinois Heartland Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS). Mohan, who holds the Earl H. and Marian A. Beling Professorship in the Natural Sciences at Illinois Wesleyan, will be honored at the annual ACS banquet in Peoria, Ill., at a banquet on March 3.

The award is presented to those who actively use chemistry in a positive way. Mohan’s research focuses on developing environmentally friendly organic synthesis using bismuth compounds. Bismuth and its compounds are remarkably non-toxic and attractive from a green chemistry perspective.

“The research Ram Mohan is conducting is doing good for the public and for the scientific community,” said Narayan Hosmane, a distinguished research professor at Northern Illinois University who nominated Mohan for the award. “I have the chance to work with Nobel Laureates and professors across the nation, and Dr. Mohan is one of the most productive faculty members I have met, and in an area not generally touched by chemists – green chemistry.”

Illinois Wesleyan Chemistry Department Chair Rebecca Roesner referred to Mohan as a brilliant lecturer and a dedicated mentor. “It is gratifying to see someone who has worked so hard for his students and contributed so much to the profession of chemistry be recognized with this special distinction,” she said.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University’s Professor of Biology R. Given Harper has been named the George C. and Ella Beach Lewis Endowed Chair of Biology. Endowed professorships and chairs honor faculty members who have distinguished themselves in terms of teaching, research and service.

An avian ecologist with diverse research interests, Harper’s scholarly work ranges from documenting DDT and heavy metal contaminants in North American gray wolves, to estimating the breeding populations of red-tailed hawks and American Kestrels in Illinois. He has been called upon to offer expert testimony during legislative hearings on the impact of development on wildlife, such as strip-mining affecting the nesting of eagles in rural Illinois. National and area media have sought his input on topics that can vary from contaminants found in migratory birds to the effects of climate change.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University’s Professor of Religion Carole Myscofski has been named the McFee Professor of Religion. Endowed professorships and chairs honor faculty members who have distinguished themselves in terms of teaching, research and service.

Professor Myscofski teaches courses that focus on areas such as myth and ritual, women and religions, the religions of Native Americans, Africans, Latin Americans and cults in America. Her scholarly works have been honored with numerous grants and fellowships, including two from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award.

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