May 17, 2005

Awash in Awards at Commencement

GW Honors Distinguished Faculty, Staff, and Students

Four outstanding members of GW’s faculty will be honored for their contributions to the GW community with the 2005 Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Prizes. Marie Price, associate professor of geography and international affairs, has been awarded the 2005 Prize for Teaching. For the first time in the Prize for Research Scholarship’s 14-year history, two professors have received honors, University Professor Amitai Etzioni and Professor of Mathematics Jozef Przytycki. The 2005 Prize for Service went to Arthur Wilmarth, professor of law. Each recipient will receive a $1,000 cash prize and plaque during Commencement.

Price was honored for her outstanding teaching and hands-on approach in the classroom. The teaching award recognizes excellence in teaching defined as the accurate and effective communication to undergraduates of important cultural, historical, and/or scientific subject matter as well as current scholarship and scholarly debate in the fields involved.

Etzioni and Przytycki are both widely known for their research efforts. Etzioni, an author of many publications, is the founder of the Communitarian Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the moral, social, and political foundations of society. Przytycki is internationally known for his work on knot theory, a branch of topology aimed at understanding closed curves in three-dimensional space. The prize for research scholarship recognizes outstanding research accomplishments while they are being made rather than after the fact.

Wilmarth, a widely published and highly respected scholar, is being honored for his contributions to the students and faculty of the Law School. His areas of expertise include banking law, contracts, corporations, and American legal history. The award is presented annually to a tenured member of the faculty to recognize exceptional service to GW.

Three Receive “GW Award”
Continuing a 29-year tradition, three members of the GW community have been selected to receive the “GW Award” for their lasting contributions to the University. This year’s honorees include: David Rowley, professor emeritus of chemistry; Mary Bayliss, assistant director for finance of the University Budget Office; and, Vikram Bakhru, a fourth-year medical student.

Musayev to Receive Manatt-Trachtenberg Prize
GW senior Lina Musayev is the recipient of the second annual Manatt-Trachtenberg Prize, for her efforts challenging the social consciousness of GW’s students, faculty, and staff by advocating progressive and humanitarian policies throughout campus. She will receive her BA in political communication and a minor in music from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. .

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