Johnnetta Cole, former WSU faculty member and administrator and President Emerita of Spelman College in Atlanta and Bennett College in North Carolina, received an honorary doctoral degree from WSU at fall commencement on December 6.
A WSU team of physicists successfully completed the first experiments using the nation’s premiere synchrotron X-ray facility to detect shock wave-induced changes in a crystalline material.
David Miller and Robert Hull, members of the class of 1968 and founding partners of Seattle-based The Miller|Hull Partnership, LLP, were honored as the 37th and 38th recipients of the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2003 the Miller Hull Partnership received the 2003 American Institute of Architects Architecture Firm Award, the AIA’s highest honor.
Travis McGuire, professor in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, received the WSU President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service.
George Mount, WSU civil and environmental engineering faculty member since 1997, became director of a new university system-wide interdisciplinary Center for Environmental Research, Education, and Outreach (CEREO). In 2004 NASA launched a satellite into space that includes a pollutant-measuring device that professor George Mount helped develop.
Thomas J. Dickinson, Regents Professor in the Department of Physics, was honored as the seventh recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award.
The WSU Regents renamed two Pullman campus buildings. Wilson Hall became Wilson-Short Hall, honoring James F. Short, Jr., influential WSU sociology professor. This building was first named for James Wilson, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1897 to 1913. The Plant Biosciences Facility I, part of a multi-building bioscience complex, became the Orville A. Vogel Plant Biosciences Building, named for one of WSU’s great agricultural researchers and wheat breeders.
For the first time since the 1993-94 season, the WSU men’s Cougar basketball team made the NCAA men’s national basketball tournament, coached by Tony Bennett. The Cougars won their opening-round game over Oral Roberts, but lost to Vanderbilt in the second-round. WSU finished second in the Pac-10 Conference with a 26-8 season win-loss record. Tony Bennett, who won numerous Coach of the Year honors, succeeded his father, Dick Bennett, who coached the Cougars for three seasons.
Dr. Guy Palmer, a veterinary pathologist at WSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, was elected a member of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, one of the highest honors for those in biomedical research and human health care.
Phyllis J. Campbell, a member of the class of 1973 with a B.A. in business administration and the president and CEO of the Seattle Foundation, was honored as the 36th recipient of the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award.
The Spillman Stone, a two-ton granite rock with William Jasper Spillman’s name engraved on it, was rededicated October 21 at Clark Hall Plaza on the Pullman campus. A wheat breeder at WSU from 1894 to 1902, Spillman was the only American to independently rediscover Mendel’s Law of Heredity and was also influential in early agricultural economics.
The WSU women’s rowing team took fourth place at the 2006 NCAA Championships in May in New Jersey. In the Cougars’ best finish ever at the NCAA level, the varsity eight and varsity four each finished fourth. Earlier that year, the Cougars finished second overall at the Pac-10 Championships in California. Jane LaRiviere of WSU was named “Coach of the Year” for Pacific-10 Women’s Rowing and for the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association West Region.
Jack D. Rogers, professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, was honored as the sixth recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award.
Sociologist James F. Short Jr., nationally respected researcher and university leader, received the WSU President’s Award for Lifetime Service.
The new Carnegie Classifications ranked WSU as one of 94 public and private research institutions nationwide with very high research activity. This recognition brought attention to WSU research and Ph.D. educational programs.
During the 2005-06 year, the WSU Cougars had a football and men’s basketball “sweep” of rival University of Washington Huskies. In fall 2005, WSU beat the UW in the annual Apple Cup football game. In the winter of 2006, the Cougars beat the Huskies in both basketball games. The last time the Cougars had such an academic year “sweep” of the Huskies was 1968-69.
In a 26-31 Cougar pigskin loss to San Jose State in Spokane, Glenn Johnson debuts as public address announcer for WSU football and men’s basketball, a position which soon earns him the title of “Voice of the Cougars.” In 1983, he starts the “And that’s another Cougar first down…” call which has since been copied by many others. Glenn was a faculty member in the WSU Murrow College of Communication faculty from 1979 to 2014.
Work by WSU molecular biologist Michael K. Skinner and his research team was chosen as one of the top 100 science stories of 2005 by Discover magazine. The researchers found that exposing fetal rats to environmental toxins can affect their sexual development in a way that also shows up in subsequent generations. The mechanism was an epigenetic one.
WSU held opening events for the new Education Addition, adjacent to Cleveland Hall, home of the WSU College of Education.
Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Dr. Irwin “Ernie” Rose received the 35th Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award. A graduate of Spokane’s Lewis and Clark High School, he attended WSU in the mid-1940s and was influenced by Herb Eastlick, a prominent WSU zoology teacher.
R. James Cook received the WSU President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service. Prior to becoming interim dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, he was a plant pathologist with the USDA-ARS at WSU and later held an endowed chair in wheat research at the university.
A solar home constructed on campus in Pullman by WSU engineering and architecture students was part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition in Washington, D.C. The home was later moved to a permanent exhibit at Shoreline Community College.
Clarence A. Ryan Jr., emeritus professor, plant biochemistry researcher in WSU’s Institute of Biological Chemistry, and first WSU professor in the National Academy of Sciences, received WSU’s honorary doctoral degree at spring commencement.
Yogendra M. Gupta, professor of physics and director of the Institute for Shock Physics, was honored as the fifth recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award.
Motivational speaker and actress Yolanda King, daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., gave a presentation in Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum as part of the University’s MLK Celebration.
John N. Abelson, who earned a bachelor of science in physics in 1960, was honored as the recipient of the 35th Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award. Abelson was a distinguished molecular biologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Peter Jennings, ABC-TV news anchor, received an Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting during the WSU Edward R. Murrow Symposium.
A bronze memorial in Holland Library was dedicated to honor the “Grandfather of Chicano poetry,” Ricardo Sánchez. Sánchez was a celebrated poet and WSU creative writing and Chicano studies faculty member from 1991 until his death in 1995.
The WSU College of Veterinary Medicine was granted seven years of continued full accreditation by the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Council on Education. It is the highest level of accreditation any veterinary college can attain.
The first “Celebrating Excellence: An Evening Honoring Our Faculty and Staff” banquet in Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum honored WSU award-winning faculty and staff.
Frances K. McSweeney, professor of psychology and vice provost for faculty affairs, was honored as the fourth recipient of the 2004 Eminent Faculty Award.
WSU Spokane Chancellor Rom Markin received the first WSU President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service. His WSU service included 15 years as the dean of the College of Business and Economics.
WSU’s renowned Edward R. Murrow School of Communication was strengthened by the opening of a 24,000-square-foot building, now known as Goertzen Hall, that includes communication research and teaching labs, TV news studio, faculty offices, and an auditorium.
WSU graduate Sherman J. Alexie Jr., award-winning poet, author, screenwriter, and film director, received the 33rd Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award recipient.
The athletic highlights of 2003 included women’s golf making its first NCAA appearance, a WSU swimmer competing in the NCAA championship, rowing making its first team NCAA appearance, and Whitney Evans winning NCAA, NCAA regional, and PAC-10 high jump titles.
The WSU football team had a successful year in 2003. It began with the 2002-03 football team (named PAC-10 Conference co-champions) playing in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2003. The Cougs lost to Oklahoma 14-34. For the 2003 season, former assistant Bill Doba became the Cougars’ new head coach, succeeding Mike Price. The Doba-led team played in the 2003 Holiday Bowl football game on Dec. 30, 2003. The Cougars beat Texas 28-20. The 2003 season marked WSU football’s third straight 10-win season. The Cougs were the first Pac-10 team to achieve this feat in 70 years.
Rodney Croteau, Eisig-Tode Distinguished Professor of Forest Biotechnology in WSU’s Institute of Biological Chemistry, was honored as the third recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award.
Construction began on the new Plant Biosciences Building, the first of several new buildings that will create a new research and education complex along Stadium Way. The building was dedicated on October 14, 2005 and named for wheat researcher Orville Vogel in 2007.
WSU’s 2002 football team was PAC-10 Conference co-champions. The Cougs played Oklahoma in the 2003 Rose Bowl where they lost 14-34.
WSU named Don A. Dillman the second recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award. Dillman was the Thomas S. Foley Distinguished Professor of Government and Public Policy and a social scientist in the Departments of Sociology and Rural Sociology.
