Every year, the state university and numerous academic and professional organizations honor hundreds of UUP members for outstanding accomplishments in their disciplines, on campus and in their communities.

The Voice is pleased to recognize some of these members here.

• Lois Baker, a senior health sciences editor in the Office of University Communications at the University at Buffalo, was recently elected as a fellow of the 5,500-member American Medical Writers Association (AMWA). Fellowships recognize members who have made substantial contributions to the goals and activities of AMWA and to their profession.

• James Cretekos, a professor emeritus of chemistry at Alfred State College and a past recipient of the union’s Nina Mitchell Award for Distinguished Service, was recently appointed by the governor to the Alfred State College Council. Council members serve without salary as an advisory group to the college president on issues ranging from regulations on student conduct to review of academic programs.

• Jacob Heller, an associate professor and chair of the sociology department at  SUNY?Old Westbury, has published The Vaccine Narrative (Vanderbilt University Press, July 2008), which looks at the controversial issue of child vaccines. The 214-page book examines four cases that span the 20th century: diphtheria, rubella, pertussis and HIV/AIDS, and how the values attributed to vaccines influence their development and use.

• Wendy Mitteager, an assistant professor of geography at SUNY Oneonta, recently received the 2008 Ashok Kumar Malhotra Seva (Compassionate Service) Faculty Award. The award recognizes a faculty member who performs community service, motivates others to do so, and integrates community service into the teaching and learning process. The $1,000 award was established through the college foundation by UUPer Ashok Malhotra, a distinguished teaching professor who has taught at the college since 1967.

— Karen L. Mattison