Two profs receive Alison Society's 2001 Young Scholars Award

Melinda Duncan, assistant professor of biological sciences, and Owen White, assistant professor of history, were honored as 2001 recipients of the Young Scholars Award of the Francis Alison Society at a dinner honoring named professors, held Nov. 29 in Clayton Hall.

The prestigious award is made annually to a tenure-track assistant professor at the University who has demonstrated excellence in research and publications. Nominations for the award, which is highly competitive, are made by chairpersons of UD's departments.

Duncan received her bachelor's degree in chemistry with honors from Lafayette College, then pursued a doctorate in boichemistry at Rutgers University through a joint graduate program with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. She continued postdoctoral work at the National Institutes of Health, working with the renowned Joram Piatagorsky in the field of eye development.

Before arriving at UD in 1997, she had published several papers as first author, and immediately after her arrival she secured a research grant of $1.2 million from the National Eye Institute on "The Mechanisms of Lens Fiber Cell Differentiation." She has received several awards and honors, publishing four more papers as first author at Delaware.

White received a bachelor's degree with first-class honors in history from the University of Exeter, England. He earned his Ph.D. degree at St. Anthony's College, Oxford University, in modern history. He obtained a postdoctoral fellowship in the British Academy, the only one given to a modern historian, and also was a lecturer in modern history at University College, Oxford. Through his fellowship, he conducted extensive research in West Africa, leading to Children of the French Empire: Miscegenation and Colonial Society in West Africa, published by the Oxford University Press.

White's book received outstanding reviews from such journals as The Times Literary Supplement and the Journal of History, and he is regarded as one of the best young scholars in the field of colonial history.

The Francis Alison Society includes professors at the University who have received the Francis Alison Award since 1980. The mission of the society is to promote academic excellence. To that end, the society has established a fund and a plaque to recognize UD's most promising young scholars.