IU College of Arts and Sciences names its 2014 alumni and faculty honorees
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A Federal Reserve Bank president, a nationally recognized fine arts photographer and an award-winning actor, writer and director are among the recipients of the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Awards, presented by the Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences.
“It is always a special pleasure to welcome our Distinguished Alumni and Outstanding Young Alumni award recipients back to the Bloomington campus,” said Larry Singell, executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “By hearing their individual stories, we learn more each year about the enduring power and value of a liberal arts education. Meeting and honoring our outstanding alumni and faculty is a genuine privilege for me. This event is always a much-anticipated occasion in the life of the College.”
Each year, the College honors a small group of accomplished alumni and faculty at its annual Alumni Awards Dinner. This year’s dinner -- which will be the 36th --- will take place Friday, April 4. The highlight of the evening will be the presentation of its most prestigious awards, including three Distinguished Alumni Awards, two Outstanding Young Alumni Awards and a Distinguished Faculty Award.
This year's recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award are James Bullard (MA ’87, Ph.D. ’90), president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Naser al-Hujelan (Ph.D. ’08), deputy minister of cultural affairs with the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information; and Jerry Uelsmann (MFA ’60), a nationally renowned photographer/artist and professor emeritus of photography at the University of Florida.
The recipients of 2013 Outstanding Young Alumni Awards are Arian Moayed (BA ’02), a Tony-nominated actor, arts educator and film writer/director; and Marion Werkheiser (BA ’00), an attorney who specializes in preserving and protecting antiquities and other items that reflect cultural heritage.
This year's Distinguished Faculty Award recipient is Richard DiMarchi (Ph.D. ’79), IU’s Standiford H. Cox Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and the Linda and Jack Gill Chair in Biomolecular Sciences.
The College of Arts and Sciences Annual Alumni Awards Dinner is open to the public. Reservations must be made by Monday, March 31. Registration and details are available on the IU Alumni Association's website.
More about those being honored:
James Bullard has been president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis since 2008 and has been with the Fed since 1990, the year he earned his doctorate in economics from IU.
A noted monetary policy scholar, Bullard has had research articles published in numerous professional journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Monetary Economics, Macroeconomic Dynamics and the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. He has been a peer reviewer for more than two dozen periodicals and institutions, and he currently is co-editor of the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control.
As a rotating member of the Fed’s monetary policymaking body, the Federal Open Market Committee, Bullard supported quantitative easing in the wake of the recent financial crisis and has raised concerns about the threat of a Japanese-style deflationary trap here in the U.S.
Beyond his work with the Fed, Bullard is an honorary professor of economics at Washington University in St. Louis. A native of Forest Lake, Minn., Bullard is a graduate of St. Cloud (Minn.) State University and is a member of the University of Missouri-St. Louis Chancellor’s Council, the United Way U.S.A. Board of Trustees and the Greater St. Louis Financial Forum.
Naser al-Hujelan, a champion of literacy and cultural advancement in Saudi Arabia, sees education as the key to a bright future for all. As deputy minister of cultural affairs in Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture and Information, Hujelan works to support and encourage what he calls a “culture of reading and publishing” in the kingdom and to strengthen ties between Saudi intellectuals and the rest of the world.
He has pushed to elevate the role of women as intellectual and cultural leaders and has worked tirelessly to establish educational centers that encourage entire families to actively pursue literacy, learning and culture.
Before joining the cultural ministry, Hujelan was director of academic advising and the dean of libraries at King Saud University in Riyadh. In 2008, he earned a doctorate in modern Arabic literature with a minor in folklore from IU’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.
Jerry Uelsmann, an internationally recognized fine arts photographer, has had work exhibited in more than 100 shows all over the world.
His surrealistic, allegorical photo montages are in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Chicago Art Institute, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Bibliotheque National in Paris.
Uelsmann was the first photographer to have a one-man exhibit at MOMA. That 1967 exhibit was a turning point in the public’s perception of photography, not merely as a tool to document reality but as a medium for artistic expression. Uelsmann won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1972. He is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and a founding member of The Society of Photographic Education.
Though he gained fame as an artist, Uelsmann also spent decades as an educator. In 1960, after earning his MFA at IU, he accepted his first job offer and began teaching photography at the University of Florida. He became a graduate research professor of art at the university in 1974 and, though now retired from teaching, still lives in Gainesville.
Arian Moayed, a cast member on the new TV drama "Believe," is a Tony-nominated actor, artistic director, arts educator and award-winning writer/director for film.
Before landing the role of Corey in the NBC drama co-produced by J.J. Abrams ("Lost") and Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón ("Gravity"), Moayed was nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of Musa in Rajiv Joseph’s "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo."
He will soon appear in Jon Stewart’s directorial debut, "Rosewater" and has worked with many other notable filmmakers, including Spike Lee, Tom Fontana, Tony Kushner and Scott Rudin.
He is a recipient of the Theater World Award and has been nominated for Drama League and Drama Desk awards. As artistic director of Waterwell, an award-winning nonprofit theater in New York, Moayed has helped create and stage more than a dozen original productions, including "Marco Millions" and "The Persians."
He also administers the Waterwell Drama Program, which is regarded as one of the best public school arts programs in the country. In partnership with the Professional Performing Arts School, Waterwell Drama Program helps provide hundreds of middle and high school students from all economic backgrounds with high-quality training in theater and the performing arts.
Marion Werkheiser, an attorney and an expert on corporate, regulatory and international trade law, is a committed crusader against what she calls the global “black market in looted antiquities.”
She is co-founder and managing partner of Cultural Heritage Partners PLLC, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that focuses exclusively on cultural heritage issues, the first firm of its kind.
She and her colleagues also do advocacy work with Congress and federal agencies to increase protections for domestic cultural heritage, including shipwrecks and significant historic and cultural sites across the country. Before launching Cultural Heritage Partners, she co-founded and for five years co-directed the Phoenix Project, a nationally recognized social enterprise focused on improving business practices and sustainability of organizations working in the social sector.
A Wells Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa while at IU, she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and classical civilization with an emphasis in art and archaeology.
After earning her law degree from Harvard University, she practiced international trade law in the Washington, D.C., office of Baker & Daniels. Werkheiser also served as a legal fellow in the office of U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and she remains active in Democratic politics.
Richard DiMarchi, a professor and former chair of IU’s Department of Chemistry, is a noted leader in life sciences research and product development. He was recently named an inductee into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for the discovery and development of rDNA-derived Humalog, a synthetic “designer insulin” that can aid diabetes patients without increasing the risk of an abnormal immunological reaction.
In addition to the endowed chairs he holds at IU, DiMarchi is a co-founder of two private-sector biotech firms and serves on the board of several life sciences firms. He also is a scientific adviser to several pharmaceutical companies and to three venture funds.
He worked for more than two decades at Eli Lilly and Co., where he provided leadership in biotechnology, endocrine research and product development. He began as a research scientist at Lilly Research Labs in 1981 and, in 2003, retired as group vice president for biotechnology and product development.
As a scientist and administrator, DiMarchi contributed to the commercial development of several well-known drugs. He has authored more than 100 published research papers and is listed as a co-inventor on 90 patents.
Related Links
Media Contacts
George Vlahakis
- IU Communications
- Office 812-855-0846
- Cell 812-345-1500
- vlahakis@iu.edu
- IU Inc.
Deborah Galyan
- College of Arts and Sciences
- Office 812-855-5265
- dgalyan@indiana.edu