College announces faculty and staff award winners for 2009

Monday, April 13, 2009 – Ann Claycombe

The College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University is proud to announce the winners of its annual faculty and staff awards for 2009. All were nominated by their peers and chosen from tough, competitive fields for going above and beyond in their service to the university and its students.

The 2009 Faculty Awards winners are:

Andrew Altman, Outstanding Teaching Award. Altman is a Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Jean Beer Blumenfeld Center for Ethics. A graduate student who works closely with Altman wrote, “no course I have ever taken has been so stimulating and inspiring. Dr. Altman cultivates in his students the innate capacity for astonishment and wonder by providing them with the conceptual tools to develop new outlooks.”  A faculty colleague added, “It is no exaggeration to say that Andy’s teaching improves the quality of all our classes.”

Altman, who came to Georgia State in 2001, is a dedicated scholar as well.  His forthcoming book, A Liberal Theory of International Justice, co-authored with Christopher H. Wellman, will be published by Oxford University Press.

Amira Jarmakani, Outstanding Junior Faculty. Jarmakani, an associate professor of Women’s Studies, won the National Women’s Studies Association’s Gloria Anzaldua Book Prize for her first book, Imagining Arab Womanhood: The Cultural Mythology of Veils, Harems, and Belly Dancers in the U.S.

Jarmakani is a member of the execultive committee for both the Women’s Studies Institute and the Middle East Institute, has created several new courses for Women’s Studies, and is known for working with individual students. “Her dedication to the classroom, to mentoring, and the Women’s Studies Institute are exemplary,” wrote a colleague. “Her preparation, organization and oversight can be relied upon to accomplish the work at hand with smooth certainty.”

Unil Perera, Outstanding Scholarship Award. Perera is a Professor and Associate Chair of Physics and Astronomy. Perera, a leader in the field of semiconductor optoelectronics, has authored more than 100 referred journal articles, and filed five patents from his work. In 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, an honor given to less than half of one percent of the society’s membership.

Perera hasserved as graduate director in Physics and as director of the Laboratory for Interactions of Radiation with Matter at Georgia State University. He has established three graduate awards, and initiated a joint graduate program between GSU and the Institute of Fundamental Studies in Sri Lanka.

“Dr. Perera’s service contributions have been essential to the growth of the Physics & Astronomy Department and the University,” wrote a colleague.

The 2009 Staff Awards winners are:

Eric Sarbach, Outstanding Junior Staff Award. Sarbach, who is a practicing sculptor in his own right, supervises and maintains the School of Art and Design’s sculpture laboratories. He is the first to hold that position, and since arriving in 2006 has transformed the studio’s physical plants and practices.

Sarbach first built his own office, using scrap materials from the studio, and then built a tool room and three lockable spaces for faculty materials. He repairs all of the studio’s equipment and keeps it in top shape, uses his own truck to move raw metal, fuel and finished sculptures to and from the studio, and keeps a close eye on safety practices. “His ability to lead diplomatically results from a truly caring and supporting concern for the needs of all within the studio,” wrote a faculty member.

Todd Studebaker, winner of the Senior Staff Leadership Award. Studebaker is the director of the University Theatre – among his other duties, he advises the GSU Players and is the technical director for their productions, and coordinates the schedule and logistics for the main theater facility in Alumni Hall. A few years ago, Studebaker coordinated a $250,000 upgrade to the Alumni Hall review.

Studebaker also has an outstanding record of service. He currently chairs the Arts and Sciences Mentoring and Morale Committee as well as the Department of Communication’s scholarship committee, and has recently been elected to the college’s Executive Committee as well. In the past he has also served on the Arts and Sciences Executive Committee and been actively involved in the Student Activity Fee allocation process.

“If I could clone Todd Studebaker, I’d order at least five more,” wrote his chair, David Cheshier of the Department of Communication.