Six faculty land awards for research

The Columbia-Willamette Chapter of Sigma Xi honored numerous Portland State professors last week for their contributions to scientific research in the Portland area. Six PSU professors and one OHSU professor were awarded the Outstanding Scientific Research Awards, which are given to local scientists each year by the local chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society that is housed at Portland State.

The Columbia-Willamette Chapter of Sigma Xi honored numerous Portland State professors last week for their contributions to scientific research in the Portland area.

Six PSU professors and one OHSU professor were awarded the Outstanding Scientific Research Awards, which are given to local scientists each year by the local chapter of Sigma Xi, the scientific research society that is housed at Portland State.

The awards were delivered at a banquet held Thursday, and the professors were chosen based on the amount of funding they received, publications and presentations they participated in and the significance of their research. This is the third year that the awards were given.

Scott Burns, geology professor and president of the Columbia-Willamette Chapter of Sigma Xi, said it is very exciting that professors are being honored for research, as much of the work the winners do is behind the scenes.

“So many of the researchers, their names don’t get out there,” he said, “but they are doing incredible work.”

Winners received an engraved plaque and $500. Their areas of research ranged from studies on oxygen transport and the nervous system, to how employers hire workers and fluid management in space.

Winners from PSU included Donald Truxillo, professor of industrial and organizational psychology; Christina Hulbe, associate professor of geology; Mark Weislogel, associate professor of mechanical engineering; Sean Larsen, assistant professor in the mathematics and statistics department; Robert Strongin, professor of chemistry and David Peyton, professor of chemistry.

David Morton, a professor of integrative biosciences at OHSU, also received an award.

Peyton received a unique award at the banquet, entitled “Research on a Shoestring,” which is reserved for faculty who do significant research without large amounts of funding. With $30,000 Peyton discovered a hybrid molecule that works on a resistant strain of malaria. He has since received almost $1 million in funding to continue his research.

Every year departments nominate two people, whose names are given to the Sigma Xi board, which then decides on a winner.

Honoring the work that professors do is important, Burns said, because there are not many awards at PSU for them. He said his dream is to have awards within each school on campus.

“They are just pats on the back, because faculty members really don’t get a lot of pats on the back,” he said.