Eleven distinguished Cornell faculty members were honored during a special dinner and recognition ceremony May 26 in the Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room. President David Skorton and Provost Biddy Martin made the following presentations:

Robert and Helen Appel Fellowships for Humanists and Social Scientists

Presidential councillors Robert '53 and Helen '55 Appel established the Appel Fellowships for Humanists and Social Scientists in 1995 to help Cornell attract and retain outstanding faculty members in the humanities and the social sciences. This year's honorees for fellowships were Eric Rebillard, classics, and T. Robert Travers, history.

Rebillard, who studies late antiquity and early Christianity with a focus on the interactions between Christians and non-Christians in the Roman Empire, has become one of the department's most valued teachers, praised for his patience and one-on-one work with students, including advising, and for his efforts on search committees and as acting director of graduate studies.

Travers, a scholar of British imperial history and colonial India, has been praised as an exceptional teacher who has been active with admissions and in numerous colloquia and seminars.

Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Awards

Cornell trustee Stephen B. Ashley '62, MBA '64, and his wife, Janice, established the Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Awards in honor of the late Ken Carpenter, who was Stephen Ashley's adviser and professor of business management. This year's winners of the awards were: Rosemary Avery, policy analysis and management; John Belina, electrical and computer engineering; R. Laurence Moore, history; John Weiss, history.

Avery, who serves as chairperson of her department and focuses on public policy and the impact of media images on consumer choice in her research, is the recipient of several awards for both her teaching and scholarship, including the prestigious Weiss Presidential Fellowship, Merrill Presidential Teacher Recognition Award (six times) and the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Belina, who designs equipment that may assist people with chronic diseases, has served the College of Engineering as a teaching associate, director of advising and the director of admissions as well as assistant director of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Master of Engineering program in that field since 1982.

Moore has been the director of Cornell's American Studies Program and is now acting head of the history department. His scholarly work explores the intersection of religion with other parts of American culture.

Weiss has taught 21 different courses about 20th-century Europe and has served as co-chair or chair of the French studies program, Cornell Cinema advisory committee and University-ROTC Relations Committee, and three times as director of the Institute for European Studies. In 1984 he instituted the Frederic Conger Wood undergraduate summer research fellowship program, which has now sent over 100 students to 21 European countries to conduct research.

Robert A. and Donna B. Paul Award for Excellence in Advising

Robert Paul '59, Cornell trustee emeritus and presidential councillor, established the Paul Advising Endowment in Arts and Sciences with his wife, Donna. The endowment funds, among numerous advising programs, the Paul Awards of Excellence in Advising. This year's recipients were: Barry H. Maxwell, comparative literature, American Studies Program, and John Whitman, linguistics.

Maxwell is known for his open-ended conferences with students, many of whom who have won prizes for their undergraduate theses. He has advised students from a wide variety of fields and is known for imparting his own excitement in various intellectual matters and pushing his advisees to intellectual discovery. Whitman is known for being an exceptional adviser who is extraordinarily generous with his time and demonstrates extraordinary willingness to nurture his advisees' ideas.

The Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellows, who have been reported on previously, also were honored: Glenn C. Altschuler, American studies, Continuing Education and Summer Session; Theodore J. Lowi, government; and Edward W. McLaughlin, marketing, applied economics and management.