Champions around every corner -- Faculty and staff at the University of Oregon are among their best in the fields. Some were even athletes themselves. The stories below highlight just of few of the ways they routinely serve the state, region and nation.
Carlos Aguirre still remembers his first soccer ball.
It was a Christmas present when he was 3 or 4 years old -- quite a treat for a young boy growing up in a small town in northern Peru, where the neighborhood kids would wad up some socks or paper to play futbol, and use two stones or a pair of shoes to mark the goal.
"I grew up playing soccer...
This year’s 531 new...
Researchers Stephanie Wood and John Sullivan of the Wired Humanities Projects at the University of Oregon have embarked on a three-year research effort to document the Aztec language, Nahuatl. The language is in jeopardy due to dwindling numbers of native speakers, media expansion into remote communities and a lack of preservation efforts for indigenous cultures.
Wood and Sullivan received a total of $350,000 funding...
Becky Sisley still hasn’t stopped coaching and playing. And her voice has never been stronger advocating for women in sports.
She’s in the UO Athletics Hall of Fame for her contributions over 35 years as a coach, professor, and the first director of womens athletics in UO history. She continues to support womens athletics, funding a full-ride scholarship every year for a softball player from Oregon or Washington.
And now 70, she’s earned worldwide...
University of Oregon biologist Jessica Green is among 25 newly named, international TED Fellows who will travel to Long Beach, Calif., in February for the organization's 25th annual conference that is themed “What the World Needs Now.” Green, a member of the UO Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, studies microbial diversity, a research area undergoing rapid growth because of new technologies.
TED is an...
UO chemist Jim Hutchison -- before green chemistry and nanotechnology seeped into his mind -- used to run barefoot in the dunes along the Oregon coast near Florence, with visions of UO running legend Steve Prefontaine in his head.
That was in middle school. Hutchison continued running, as a track and cross-country competitor, 1981-83, at the University of Washington and University of Oregon. Then in 10-K and half marathons during graduate school at Stanford University.
...
Ask UO journalism professor Mark Blaine what he remembers about his college athletic days, he'll describe his University of Missouri rugby team's loss to Air Force on a "very muddy field" in a 1992 Sweet 16 game at the University of Kansas.
Blaine, a former prize-winning investigative reporter for the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times who holds a master's degree in literary nonfiction from the UO, also will tell you some of his best friends were teammates on the football team at...
UO chemistry professor Geri Richmond is not only at the top of her field as a scientist, she is a leading advocate in efforts to draw women into careers in science, math and engineering. On Dec. 10, she was called to Washington to participate in the White House Council on Women and Girls.
Richmond, who studies the molecular structure of water and other liquid surfaces, was among a group of leaders from several organizations who met to talk strategy at the White House. "It went very...
As Fall Quarter began, University of Oregon psychologist Michael Posner was called to the White House. Posner was among nine researchers named as winners of the 2008 National Medal of Science, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to scientists, engineers and inventors.
Posner joined the UO faculty in 1965 and has been hailed by his peers around the world as a leading pioneer who helped shape the field of cognitive neuroscience. Posner today is a professor emeritus, but he...
Paul van Donkelaar, professor of human physiology, studies the brain’s role in human movement. He uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to study such things as stroke, concussion and cerebral palsy.
Van Donkelaar, while a student, was a member of the University of British Columbia rowing team (1983-87) and...
Dave Rubino says he began running, jumping and soaring over hurdles while in junior high school. He participated in track and field at Cortland State University in New York. For the last eight years he has been on the faculty of the UO’s department of physical education and recreation.
“Athletics made me a better person overall,” he says. “I learned the traits of being a good sport, making great friends, learning how to...
Competing in the Rose Bowl “is about reputation, excellence and a commitment to the whole range of experiences available as a Duck,” says Peg Rees, the UO’s associate director of physical education.
“When some of us win, we all win,” she says. “I am just as proud that our school is going to the bowl game as I am when a faculty member wins a great award -- like our ...
A college education is designed to shape well-rounded individuals with high moral character that holds true when challenged, says UO researcher Chris Minson. It’s on a sports playing field, he says, where that effort is best tested.
“Mistakes are opportunities to learn and to improve yourself, and college sports sets the stage for this to happen,” said Minson, who speaks with experience. He...
If it weren’t for Sputnik, Jim Isenberg, UO math professor, might have become a professional athlete. OK, not really. He quickly will tell you that his college athletic years at Princeton University happened because he “couldn’t conceive not doing them.”
From 1969 to 1973, Isenberg earned five varsity letters. He competed in cross-country running, wrestling and...
The guest coach program started 25 years ago as a way to give faculty, staff and administrators an opportunity to experience game day the same way as players and coaches. The guest coaches eat meals and attend all the pregame meetings before traveling to the stadium to tour the facilities. They are on the sidelines for the game and then attend a postgame festivity with the head coach. The guest coaches are chosen by the academic support group on recommendations from student athletes and...
