Galileo Circle Awards for 2021-2022

May 2, 2022

By Scott Coleman, College of Science

The College of Science recently recognized its 2021 and 2022 Galileo Circle Awards recipients. These awards recognize some of the college's most exceptional faculty and staff and are one of the highest honors the college can bestow. The Galileo Circle Awards are made possible by the generosity of our Galileo Circle members.

At the annual Galileo Circle Awards Dinner on Thursday, April 28, 2022, College of Science Dean Carmala Garzione and members of the CoS administration recognized the 2021-2022 awardees and the Galileo Circle members who greatly support their efforts. Here are the award recipients:

Galileo Circle Fellows

Fellows are the College's most distinguished faculty. They have a deep understanding of a broad range of science, a willingness to think in a truly interdisciplinary way, and an ability to inspire colleagues and students alive.

2022: Stephen Kobourov, Professor, Computer Science

Dr. Stephen Kobourov is a Professor of Computer Science and Associate Director of the Data Science Institute at the University of Arizona. He completed BS degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science at Dartmouth College in 1995, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University in 2000. He has worked as a Research Scientist at AT&T Research Labs, a Hulmboldt Fellow at the University of Tübingen in Germany, and a Distinguished Fulbright Chair at Charles University in Prague. His research is in the design, analysis and implementation of efficient algorithms and algorithm engineering, with applications in information visualization, computational geometry, and human computer interaction. In addition to over 250 peer-reviewed publications, he has created many software tools such as GMAP (gmap.cs.arizona.edu), a system for visualizing data with the help of a geographic map metaphor. His work has been well funded through research grants, including multiple grants from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the United States Department of State.

Galileo Circle Curie Award

The Curie Award was created for rising stars among junior tenure-track faculty in the College of Science. Their innovative work advances science and adds diversity within the scientific community.

2021: Michael Marty, Assistant Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry

Dr. Michael Marty is an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department and Bio5 Institute. Dr. Marty has been awarded the ASMS Research Award, the Bisgrove Scholar Award, an NSF CAREER award, and an NIH R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA). His research applies lipoprotein nanodiscs with mass spectrometry to study membrane proteins, antimicrobial peptides, and their interactions with lipid bilayers. As the developer of UniDec, he is also interested in mass spectrometry data analysis and deconvolution.

2021: Nicole Marrone, Associate Professor, Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences

Dr. Nicole Marrone, CCC-A, is an Associate Professor in the Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences Department and holds the James S. and Dyan Pignatelli/Unisource Clinical Chair in Audiologic Rehabilitation for Adults at the University of Arizona. Her research investigates hearing loss and rehabilitation in adults. Her specialty is how interventions, including hearing aids and group audiologic rehabilitation, can improve an individual’s quality of life and communication in everyday environments.

2021: Laura Condon, Assistant Professor, Hydrology & Atmospheric Sciences

Dr. Laura Condon is an Assistant Professor in the Hydrology & Atmospheric Sciences Department. Dr. Condon researches water sustainability and the dynamics of hydrologic systems. Her work combines physically-based numerical modeling with statistical techniques and she is a lead developer of a national modeling framework. Prior to joining the University of Arizona from Syracuse University, she worked in environmental consulting and for the Bureau of Reclamation, primarily studying long term water availability issues in the Western US.

2022: Kate Isaacs, Assistant Professor, Computer Science

Dr. Kate Isaacs is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Arizona. Her interests include data visualization and high-performance computing. Her research focuses on understanding how people interpret and interact with data, improving methods for creating visual solutions, and developing new approaches of representing complex computing processes for exploration and analysis of their behavior, with applications to high-performance computing, distributed computing, data science, program analysis, optimization, and environmental justice. She received an NSF CAREER award in 2019 and a DOE Early Career Research Program award in 2021 supporting these efforts.

2022: Elisabeth Krause, Assistant Professor, Astronomy

Dr. Elisabeth Krause is an Assistant Professor in Astronomy and Physics at the University of Arizona. She received her Ph.D. in 2012 from Caltech. After postdoctoral positions at UPenn, Stanford and JPL, she joined the faculty at Arizona in 2018. Her research of combining different cosmology observations is at the intersection of observational and theoretical cosmology. Her research group at UA is currently involved in the Dark Energy Survey, the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time, the SPHEREx mission, and the Roman Space Telescope. Since starting her research group at UA, her research contributions have been recognized by a 2021 Sloan Research Fellowship, a 2020 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, the 2020 Maria Goeppert Mayer Award from the American Physical Society, an Early Career Research Award from the Department of Energy in 2019, the 2018 International Union of Physics and Applied Physics Young Scientist Award, and more than 30 invited presentations.

Galileo Circle Copernicus Award

The Copernicus Award recognizes the extraordinary accomplishments of College of Science non-tenure-eligible faculty or staff. The efforts of these individuals significantly advance the mission of their department and the knowledge base of their discipline.

2021: Brooke Massani, Director of Research Support Services, Chemistry & Biochemistry

Dr. Brooke Massani is the Director of Research Support Services and the Staff Scientist Manager of the W.M. Keck Center for Nanoscale imaging in the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department. Dr. Massani has dedicated her career to supporting the research mission of the university through the management of multi-user scientific research facilities. She has overseen the addition of $1.8 million in scientific instrumentation and has trained over 2,200 researchers on instruments supporting research projects from chemistry, biology, physics, materials science, optics, and medicine. She enjoys working with University of Arizona researchers and seeing their progression from novice to expert users as they push the edges of scientific discovery.

2021: Peter Brewer, Curator of Collections, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research

Peter Brewer is the Curator of Collections at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research where he has led efforts to provide access to specimens and data collected by University of Arizona researchers over the past 100 years. Through his interdisciplinary background in plant sciences, archaeology and informatics, he has led the development of data management tools, software platforms, and data standards that are now used by tree-ring researchers across the globe. He leads a large team that collaborates with the National Park Service's Western Archaeological and Conservation Center to provide diverse training opportunities for students and early career professionals, whilst elevating the curation program's mission and impact on campus and in the wider community.Peter Brewer, Curator of Collections, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research

2022: Donna Krawczyk, Senior Lecturer, Mathematics

Donna Krawczyk is a Senior Lecturer in the Mathematics Department. For twenty-five years, Donna has played a monumental role in shaping the calculus education offered to undergraduates at the University of Arizona. By truly understanding her students' thought processes, Donna is legendary in her ability to convert math skeptics into math aficionados, or even into math majors. Her outstanding teaching has been recognized by the UA Leicester and Kathryn Sherrill Creative teaching award (1997), CoS Distinguished Teaching Award (1992), a Mathematical Association of America Distinguished Teaching Award (2017), and the CoS Distinguished Career Teaching Award (2019). In addition to being a superb teacher, Donna is a fearless technical innovator and has provided outstanding and impactful leadership. Everyone, from the newest to the most senior faculty and staff, respects Donna's mathematical judgment.

2022: Lisa Rezende, Associate Professor of Practice, Molecular & Cellular Biology

Dr. Lisa Rezende is an Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Arizona. Her work focuses primarily on implementing evidence-based learner-centered teaching practices in different teaching modalities. She has worked in online education since 2008, and currently coordinates the online education program, undergraduate program assessment, and introductory biology for MCB. As a first-generation college graduate, Dr. Rezende seeks opportunities to promote inclusive practices. She is a member of the MCB Team for the Council for Undergraduate Research Transformation Project (CUR-TP), which works to identify facilitators and barriers to undergraduate research and increase scientific inquiry skills throughout the curriculum. She has worked on many aspects of public understanding of science throughout her career, from directly to teaching students at the university informal STEM education in the community. She brings that experience to her 100% engagement course on STEM outreach, teaching undergraduate students to communicate science to various audiences. Her students go into the community and practice their skills at local K-12 schools and STEM outreach events. For the past decade, Dr. Rezende has also worked with national nonprofit cancer organizations to help create and assess patient-facing materials focusing on understanding media reports of cancer research.

Galileo Circle Postdoc Award

The Postdoc Award was created for the substantial and invaluable contributions postdocs make to the research, mentoring, and outreach missions of both the College and University.

2021: Amanda Garcia, Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular & Cellular Biology

Dr. Amanda Garcia is a NASA Astrobiology Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Betul Kaçar in the Molecular & Cellular Biology Department. Since receiving her Ph.D. in Geology from UCLA, she currently works to integrate the geologic record with novel experimental tools for reconstructing ancient biology. This approach can help constrain how early life evolved billions of years ago and how it might develop on other planets.

2022: Melissa Flores, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Psychology

Dr. Melissa Flores is a postdoctoral scholar in The Department of Psychology at The University of Arizona. She completed her Ph.D. in 2018 in Family Studies and Human Development. Dr. Flores has been awarded an NIH K99 Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers (MOSAIC) training grant to improve cardiovascular disease prediction in U.S. Latinx/Hispanic populations. Broadly, she aims to understand both social and structural factors associated with the persistence of health disparities using a resilience-focused lens. Dr. Flores is interested in novel and advanced quantitative methods to capture and model complex social environments. She is enthusiastic and committed to strengthening the academic pipeline for diverse scholars.

2022: Stefano Nerozzi, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Lunar & Planetary Laboratory

Dr. Stefano Nerozzi is an Italian geologist and Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He joined his research group in January 2020 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, where he worked on Mars polar stratigraphy and geomorphology. He is the Science PI on a selected NASA Mars Data Analysis Program proposal to study the intricate fluvial and geologic history of outflow channel systems in Utopia Planitia on Mars. Stefano was recently selected for the Early Career section of the International Mars Ice Mapper (IMIM) Measurement Definition Team (MDT) for his expertise in Mars radar sounding, geomorphology, terrestrial analogues, and geomechanical stability of icy deposits. Stefano is the enthusiastic mentor of a diverse group of three undergraduate research assistants (Maia Willis-Reddick, Reed Spurling, and Leah Panzarella) working on geology and geophysics projects on Mars. In his free time, Stefano enjoys amateur radio, archery, hiking, and many other outdoor activities. He also plays a lot of Kerbal Space Program.