Vince Dooley, former director of athletics, recently received the Homer Rice Award. The top award presented by the Division I-A Athletic Directors Association, it is presented annually to a retired athletic director with a distinguished career who has made a significant impact on the profession and intercollegiate athletics.

Stacey Kolomer

Stacey Kolomer, an associate professor in the School of Social Work, received the Marietta Suhart Award from the Georgia Gerontology Society. The award is given to an individual with demonstrated ability to educate para-professionals, professionals and other persons working with older adults; proven leadership and vision in gerontology by development and expansion of educational programs and services; and recognized ability in teaching gerontology.

The Georgia Gerontology Society was founded in 1955 as a membership organization of people with a common interest in the field of aging and is committed to promoting quality leadership. GGS is the largest state organization of multidisciplinary professionals in the field of aging.

Lynne M. Sallot, professor of public relations, has been named the 2007 Outstanding Educator by the Public Relations Society of America.

The national award will be formally presented Oct. 23 at the society’s international conference in Philadelphia. The award recognizes excellence in public relations teaching based on contemporary, research-based knowledge of public relations and contributions to the advancement of public relations education.

The Public Relations Society of America, headquartered in New York City, is the world’s largest organization for public relations professionals with nearly 32,000 professional and student members.

Peter Smagorinsky

Peter Smagorinsky, a professor in the department of language and literacy education, will receive the 2008 Association of Teacher Educators Distinguished Research Award for research he and his team performed on how early-career teachers teach English. The article, published in the Journal of Teacher Education, is one of only a few examining why teachers teach grammar as they do. The study, “Student Engagement in the Teaching and Learning of Grammar: A Case Study of an Early Career Secondary English Teacher,” provides an account of how educators can use conceptual tools to overcome the limitations of a teaching environment. The award recognizes individuals in higher education or state departments of education who have advanced the profession of teacher education.

B.C. Wang

B.C. Wang, professor and Ramsey/Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Structural Biology, received the 2008 A. Lindo Patterson Award from the American Crystallographic Association. Only given every three years, the award recognizes outstanding contributions to the methodology of structure determination. Wang will receive the award in May at the annual meeting of the ACA in Knoxville, Tenn.