2011 Award Winners

D. David Altman ('68, BA; Political Science)

D. David Altman has dedicated the past 40 years to environmental concerns as both a civic leader and a nationally known environmental lawyer. Over this same era he has also been active in philanthropy, serving since 1975 as the executive secretary of the Murray and Agnes Seasongood Good Government Foundation and as a founding member of the Ohio Grantmaker's Forum.

He arrived at UC from Baltimore in 1964 and, as a student in A&S, started writing for the News Record. Altman was the editor in 1967-68. While a grad student in 1969, he founded the Cincinnati Experience, a UC-based volunteer program that set up projects that ranged from a drug program treatment for heroin addicts to a community-wide recycling program.

Altman is president of D. David Altman Co. LPA; has chaired or been a member of many state and local governmental advisory councils; and served on numerous nonproit boards, including the National Civic League, New Life Youth Services and Family Services of Greater Cincinnati. He is an avid art collector, with a particular interest in American and Italian contemporary art.

Matthew Doyle ('81, MS; '83, PhD; Chemistry)

Matthew J. Doyle is currently director and senior researcher at Procter & Gamble with responsibility for Oral Care product innovation, design and development. He also serves as vice president and P&G managing director of the Live Well Collaborative7a corporation formed with the University of Cincinnati.

Doyle leads a large, globally diverse organization which has launched more than 75 new products that have generated more than $700 million in sales over the past ive years, including an Ad Age top 10 product of the decade.

He is the author of "Chemical Analysis, A Solutions Guide," ive book chapters, over 65 scholarly articles, more than 45 invited lectures, and has co-invented 15 patents.

Doyle was appointed to the National Research Advisory Council at NIH (NIDCR). He holds appointments on a number of boards including the DeanOs Advisory Board for McMicken College of Arts & Sciences. In 2000, Doyle was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Association for Dental Research.

He is a recipient of the Thomas B. Cameron Award for Teaching Excellence and a Sigma Xi Research Award.

Doyle resides in Cincinnati with his wife, Mary Noon Doyle (a UC alum), and their three children.

Steven Tracy ('77, BA; '80, MA; '85, PhD; English)

Steven C. Tracy is professor of Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst. A singer and harmonica player, Tracy has recorded with his own band, Pigmeat Jarrett, Big Joe Duskin and Albert Washington, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and opened for B.B. King, Muddy Waters and many others. Tracy toured internationally with Steve Tracy and the Crawling Kingsnakes and has also written 50 CD liner notes for a variety of labels.

As a long-time researcher and supporter of the Cincinnati blues scene, Tracy wrote for "Blues Unlimited," "Living Blues," "Jeferson" and "Juke Blues." Tracy spent over a decade as a blues DJ and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greater Cincinnati Blues Society the year he left Cincinnati for Massachusetts. He returns to Cincinnati annually to host the Blues and Boogie Woogie Piano Stage at the Greater Cincinnati Blues Festival, and periodically performs at the festival as well.

Tracy is the author of three books with two more under contract. He has been editor or co-editor of 27 books. A teacher and lecturer in China multiple times, he was placed on the roster of senior specialists of the Fulbright Foundation in 2010.

McMicken College of Arts & Sciences Alumni Scholarship

Caitlynn Carr, Anthropology and Spanish

Originally from Mentor, Ohio, Caitlynn Car is a junior Spanish and anthropology major at UC. Since her first Spanish class in eighth grade, she has been fascinated with the Spanish language and Hispanic culture. She recently traveled to Guatemala with Habitat for Humanity as part of the Service Learning Spring Break Trip and she plans to do much more traveling in the future. Through traveling, she hopes to further experience and enrich her understanding of Latin American culture and religion. She plans on attending graduate school in order to pursue a PhD in either Latin American studies or nonproit organization. Her favorite courses at UC include Spanish grammar and stylistics, biology, Mexican culture and cultural anthropology. She would like to personally acknowledge Siusan Sinclair, field service associate professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, for her patience, understanding and desire to keep students involved in the community.

The Robert Patterson McKibbin Medal for the Outstanding Undergraduate Male Senior

Derek Huelsman, Mathematical Sciences and Physics

Derek Huelsman entered the University of Cincinnati in 2007 as a UC|21 and Founders Scholar majoring in astrophysics and he will graduate this spring with bachelor's degrees in both astrophysics and mathematics. In 2009, he performed research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, which resulted in publications in the Astronomical Journal and Astrophysical Journal. Last summer, he performed research at UCLA under the sponsorship of technology company Areté Associates. Active in UCOs Running Club, Huelsman won the UC Club Sports Scholar Athlete of the Year Award for 2010, participated in intramural soccer and tennis, and played piano for the UC Symphony Orchestra for the past four years. Now Huelsman is heading for a career focusing on applied mathematics and engineering. He has been accepted to the School of Engineering at l Stanford University and will likely continue his studies there this fall. His most inspiring faculty member is Physics Professor Margaret Hanson.

The Eleanor Hicks Award for the Outstanding Undergraduate Female Senior

Allison Ng, Biological Sciences and Spanish

A native of Cincinnati and an alumna of Oak Hills High School, Allison Ng developed strong interests in biology and Spanish in high school. Thinking she might like to be a doctor one day and knowledge of Spanish would be useful in that career path, she decided to double major and minor in Latin American Studies. She looks forward to continuing as a Bearcat at the UC College of Medicine this fall. She looks back fondly on her memories at UC and in McMicken College. She participated in undergraduate research in biology, took service-learning courses in Spanish that allowed her to travel to Nicaragua and Guatemala, and she has met some great faculty along the way. She would like to thank Carl Bryant in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures for his passion about the topics he teaches and his caring attitude toward students.

Outstanding Master's Student Award

Jerren Weekes, Psychology

Jerren Weekes has always been passionate about learning. That, coupled with her innate curiosity of the psyche and mental health, led her to pursue a BS in psychology from Oakwood University in 2008. Now Weekes is a third- year graduate student in the clinical psychology PhD Program at UC with research interests in mental health disparities, substance use among ethnic minorities and spirituality/religiosity as it inluences mental health. She has several publications and has presented at numerous research conferences since coming to UC. Weekes is also a student in the Preparing Future Faculty program to prepare for a career of teaching, in addition to clinical and research work. She plans to complete her dissertation, apply for a clinical internship in 2012, and get married in July 2012. Weekes would like to thank her mentors Kathy Burlew in the Department of Psychology and Sian Cotton in the Department of Family and Community Medicine.

Outstanding Doctoral Student Award

Jay Zambito, Geology

Geology doctoral candidate Jay Zambito came to UC after earning his BS from SUNY College at Brockport in 2004 and his MS from the University at Bufalo in 2006. His passion for geology began when he took a class in historical geology as an undergraduate and his research interests have followed in this vein: studying the deep-time rock and fossil record, understanding the co-evolution of life and the physical earth, and reconstructing paleoclimatic changes during extinctions. Various research projects have taken him across North America as well as to North Africa and Europe. Zambito will defend his dissertation this summer and looks forward to a career in academia. Zambito thanks his advisor Carl Brett, his dissertation committee, and his department for their generous support and helpful criticism during his time at UC, as well as for their encouragement to follow his research interests wherever they take him.