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| Ian Kennedy: winner of the third annual Charles P. Nash Prize |
DAVIS--Ian Kennedy, professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering at the University of California, Davis and chair of the Davis Faculty Association, is the recipient of the third annual Charles P. Nash Prize, designed to “reward exceptional achievement and commitment in promoting shared governance and advocacy for faculty interests and welfare.”
The prize will be awarded at a reception and dinner on Monday, April 26 in the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. The Nash Prize Selection Committee praised Kennedy for his “exceptional commitment to faculty advocacy and significant work in promoting faculty interests and welfare.”
Colleagues James R. Carey and Bruce Hammock, professors of entomology and active in the Davis Faculty Association, lauded Kennedy for his work.
“The purpose of the prize is to commemorate the late Dr. Charlie Nash’s exceptional achievements in advocating for faculty interests and welfare,” Hammock said. “It is awarded annually to a member of the UC faculty whose actions demonstrate an exceptional and extended commitment to shared governance and/or promoting faculty interests by ensuring equitable treatment of faculty. In the spirit of Charlie Nash, such service activity must be exceptional and typically span a career.”
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Bruce Hammock |
“Under Ian’s leadership,” Carey said, “the Davis Faculty Association now serves as an independent fact checker regarding statements on UC policy. “By the Nash award, the faculty recognizes Dr. Kennedy as a courageous advocate for the interests of UC faculty and their students.”
Hammock, who directs the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Superfund Program at UC Davis, said that Kennedy has “worked to remove administrative barriers to interdisciplinary research for a quarter of a century. This is illustrated by his collaborative research evolving from combustion of toxic waste to one of the first federally funded programs in nanotechnology, to the use of nanotechnology in the design of biosensors for both environmental and medical technology.”
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James R. Carey |
Kennedy collaborator Isaac Pessah of the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Molecular Bioscience, agreed. “Ian often has an innovative engineering solution for those of us trying to measure the unmeasurable,” Pessah said.
Said assistant professor Cristina Davis of the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering: “Under Dr. Kennedy’s leadership he faculty association has become a conscience for UC Davis.”
Kennedy, who received his undergraduate and doctorate degrees from Sydney University, applies fundamental principles through engineering to the public good. He has received numerous awards, including distinguished speaker of the National Institute of Environmental Health Science. He is a former associate dean of the College of Engineering.
The award memorializes chemist Charles Presley Nash (1932-2007), who passed away from complications from pneumonia on July 15, 2007 at age 75. Nash served more than 15 years as an active leader in the Faculty Association, both on the Davis campus and statewide. “Throughout his career, he generously applied his unusually detailed and broad knowledge of the campus and university-wide process of shared governance to support the faculty as a whole and to support fair treatment of individuals in their relations with the Senate and the Administration,” Hammock said. “He devoted much of his life working to make life better for others through advocacy and action.”
Following Nash’s death, then chancellor Larry Vanderhoef said he regarded Nash as “one of our most active and engaged campus citizens, even well into retirement. He truly loved UC Davis and served it well, notably completing two back-to-back terms as chair of our Academic Senate -- the first faculty member selected to do so. He was always interested in making sure faculty knew their role in shared governance, helping the university be the best it could be."
As chair of the senate, Nash co-authored the UC Davis "Principles of Community," in 1990. The document, ceremonially reaffirmed in 1996 and 2001, embodies the values of the Davis campus.
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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
