Tributes: Faculty and Donors Reflect on Rites
Feb. 20, 2012
The investiture ceremonies were designed to celebrate the careers of the professors being recognized, but the newly invested faculty members used the opportunity to honor others in the room as well.
FROM THE LEADERSHIP:
 “I use the word ‘colleague’ a lot, and it’s a very proud word for me. I truly am honored and humbled to stand with each of you.”— Dr. David E. Daniel,
|  “What else is there at the University besides the faculty?” — Dr. Hobson Wildenthal, Executive Vice President |
FROM THE HONOREES:
 “Excellence is not enough. We must make UT Dallas unavoidable, and I am happy to help make this happen.”— Dr. Roger Malina,
 “This is a great pleasure to be honored for doing work I love to do. And I’ve been very privileged in another way, to have the economic means to help other people, my colleagues, pursue the important work that means so much to them.”— Dr. Aage Møller,
 “There have been a lot of changes since the ’70s. I’m very proud of the transformation. It takes a long time to build a great university.”— Dr. Stephen Rabe,
|  “It’s going to be a great privilege to be part of this University over the next few years as it establishes its Tier One status.”— Dr. Michael Rugg
 “At age 10, I declared I wanted to be a policewoman. My father said, ‘No Marion, I think you’ll be getting a doctorate.’ ” — Dr. Marion Underwood
 “I do have the coolest job in the world.” — Dr. John Hart.
| |
FROM SUPPORTERS:
“It was very emotional. We are so glad to see Professor Ma have such a great honor and we are also happy we can be part of this achievement.”
— Chen Zheng, an international student of Dr. Dongsheng Ma who followed his mentor from Arizona to UT Dallas
“He’s always supported my career. I’m happy to be here for him.”
— Dr. Naofal Al-Dhahir’s wife, Alia, who is a pharmacist
“You have the most hard-working, most creative and most thoughtful people, and students need inspiration. This type of ceremony and honor accelerates in people to become teachers because we need teachers very badly.”
— Dr. C.V. Ramamoorthy, professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, who is a mentor to Dr. Farokh Bastani, holder of the Excellence in Education Chair and a computer science professor at UT Dallas
"He's a great communicator and scientist," Dei said. "I would eventually like to follow in his footsteps and make a career in academics. Plus, he supports us all of the time, so it's great to be able to be here and support him."
— Daniel Dei, a post-doctoral researcher in Dr. Dennis Smith's lab who said he was thrilled to be asked to attend the investiture and champion his professor
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INVESTITURE WEEK
• Investiture Ceremonies Begins New Tradition• Slideshow: Academic Pageantry In Pictures
• The Spring 2012 Honorees
• Website: Endowed Professorships and Chairs
FROM THE DONORS:
Texas Instruments representatives and President David Daniel are pictured with four holders of endowed positions supported by the company: (Front row, left to right) TI Chief Citizenship Officer Trisha Cunningham, Dr. Massimo Fischetti, Dr. Julia W.P. Hsu, Dr. Yves Chabal, and Dr. Kenneth O. (Back row, left to right) President Daniel, TI Human Resources Director Steve Lyle, TI Workforce & Education Director Arturo Sanchez and TI Senior Fellow Bob Doering.
“We enjoy our partnership with UT Dallas. We work with universities all over the world and it is wonderful to work with an institution of this caliber so close to home. We are truly happy with the trajectory they are on.”
— Trisha Cunningham, chief citizenship officer at Texas Instruments, which supports four endowed positions
From left: Dean Dennis Kratz, supporter Russell Cleveland and Dr. Enric Madriguera
“Great leadership builds great universities like UT Dallas.”
— Russell Cleveland,
whose founded a guitar studies chair in his name that Dr. Madriguera currently fills
Lois Wolf and Dr. Ross Roeser
“I’m so honored and delighted to be a part of this ceremony. It’s such an important part of life to be able hear, and for little children to be able to grow up and really hear and be a part of the world.”
— Lois Wolf, who established
the Howard B. and Lois C. Wolf Professorship of Pediatric Hearing with her husband in 2007
“This is an exciting university, it’s new and fresh. There is teamwork here, you can tell they all respect each other. That kind of environment comes from the top, from the leadership.”
— Selwin Belofsky, member of the UT Dallas Holocaust Studies Program Board of Directors and creator of the Belofsky Graduate Fellow program
