Two JMU Professors Earn SCHEV 'Outstanding Faculty Award'

James Madison University faculty members Dr. Robert A. Kolvoord and Dr. J. Barkley Rosser Jr. have been selected as recipients of the 2011 Outstanding Faculty Award by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and Dominion Resources.

Kolvoord is a professor of integrated science and technology and Rosser is an economics professor. The men join 12 recipients who were selected from a pool of 106 applicants nominated by their institutions. This year marks the silver anniversary of the awards program, which honors faculty members for excellence in teaching, research, knowledge integration and public service. Since the first awards ceremony in 1987, a total of 292 Virginia faculty members - including the 2011 recipients - have received the honor. 

Kolvoord joined the JMU faculty in 1995 as an early member of the integrated science and technology program. He serves as the interim director of the School of Engineering and a co-director of the JMU Center for STEM Education and Outreach. Kolvoord's work has focused on effectively integrating data visualization technologies into classrooms from kindergarten to college. He has worked with teachers locally, regionally, nationally and internationally to help provide tools for students to better understand science, technology, engineering and math. 

During his time at JMU, he has secured more than $4 million in grants from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, Virginia Department of Education and SCHEV. 

Rosser has been a professor at JMU since 1977, and holds the Kirby L. Cramer Jr. Chair of Business Administration. He is best known for applying ideas from complex nonlinear dynamics to various sub-fields of economics. He has published about 150 books, articles, comments, book chapters and book reviews. He has made numerous television and radio appearances and written columns in newspapers and local, national and international outlets. He has also been a major commentator on economic issues through various economics weblogs, most recently as a co-blogger on Econospeak. 

Rosser founded the Society for Nonlinear Economic Dynamics and co-founded the United States Society for Ecological Economics. He has served for nearly a decade as editor of the influential Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and was selected to be a Fellow of Economists for Peace and Security (2009). 

Full biographical entries for Kolvoord and Rosser are available on the SCHEV website (http://www.schev.edu/SCHEV/newsReleases/nr-jan2011/nr012611.asp). 

A ceremony honoring the recipients will be held Feb. 17 at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. Each recipient will receive an engraved award and $5,000 underwritten by the Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dominion Resources. The Outstanding Faculty Award program is administered by SCHEV and funded by a grant from the Dominion Foundation, which has fully supported the OFA program since 2005.