Lombardo to direct Honors Program

Stanley Lombardo, professor of classics, has been named director of the KU Honors Program and will begin in June.

Lombardo succeeds Barbara Schowen, who retired last July after serving as Honors Program director for seven years in addition to teaching chemistry for 26 years at KU. John Gronbeck-Tedesco, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and professor of theatre and film, was acting director during the search. Lombardo joined KU’s faculty in 1976. He teaches Greek and Latin as well as courses on classical mythology and Greek literature and culture. He has received a Kemper teaching fellowship and a Mortar Board award.

Audio-Reader director named to international association board

Diana Frederick, development director for Audio-Reader, KU’s radio reading service for the blind and print-impaired, has been elected to serve on the board of directors of the International Association of Audio Information Services. The association is a nonprofit organization of more than 120 independent service providers throughout the United States, Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand. Frederick, who has been development director at Audio-Reader for five years, will assume the new responsibilities in May during the association’s yearly convention in Toronto.

Shimomura announces retirement, establishes research fund

Roger Shimomura, distinguished professor of performance and painting, will retire this semester after 35 years in the KU art department. A celebration will be at 8 p.m. May 14 at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts. It is free and open to the public.

Shimomura has won international recognition and was the first artist to receive a Japan Foundation grant. He was the first fine arts faculty member to be named a distinguished professor and was the first artist to receive a Kansas Arts Commission Artist Fellowship in Painting. He also was one of 10 painters and sculptors to win a prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation award.

Shimomura has organized the Shimomura Faculty Research Fund with his own initial gift of $25,000. It will be the first fund for faculty research development in studio art at KU.

Philosophy professor named National Humanities Center fellow

Rex Martin, professor of philosophy, has been named a National Humanities Center fellow for 2004-05. Martin, one of 40 scholars chosen from 526 applicants, will take leave from KU to pursue research on “Rawls on Economic Justice” at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.

KU professor named dean at William and Mary

Carl Strikwerda, a longtime faculty member of the KU history department, has been named dean of faculty of arts and sciences at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. Strikwerda has been at KU since 1987 and has been associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences since 1998. His wife, Gail Bossenga, an associate professor of history at KU, has been appointed to the history faculty at William and Mary.