Faculty Excellence Awards

Three honored with faculty excellence awards

Three faculty members were honored at UDM's 2007 Faculty Excellence Awards dinner, Nov. 2.  Heather Hill-Vasquez, associate professor of English, and Matthew Mio, assistant professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry, received Faculty Achievement Awards, and Shulamith Schlick, professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry, was presented with the Distinguished Faculty Award. 

Heather Hill-Vasquez
Hill-Vasquez joined the University of Detroit Mercy faculty, as a member of the English Department, in 2003. Her presence makes a real and positive difference in the intellectual lives of students and in the life of the larger University community.

Hill-Vasquez's scholarship is interdisciplinary in the best sense of the word, as her analysis of literary texts is deeply informed by history, gender studies, and religious and cultural studies. Her book, Sacred Players: The Politics of Response in the Middle English Religious Drama, was published by The Catholic University of America Press in 2007.

Her articles—appearing in journals ranging from Early Theatre to Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest—and her numerous conference presentations attest to a growing reputation as an original and creative scholar in the field of medieval studies.

Her teaching is marked by the same passion and curiosity that informs her scholarship. She brings medieval literature alive for students, blending close textual analysis with larger considerations of performance, power, and ideology. She brings this same approach to her Freshman Composition and Introduction to Literature classes, as well as her Medieval Literature in Film class.

Hill-Vasquez's legendary service record fully exemplifies the mission of UDM. She contributes to the intellectual, spiritual, ethical and social development of our students not only through her classroom interactions with them, but also with the vision and leadership she brings to the Women’s and Gender Studies Program as its director.

She has worked diligently in the formation of shared governance, specifically as a CLAE representative to the nascent McNichols Faculty Assembly. She has also represented her College on the University of Detroit Mercy Professors’ Union Board, and currently serves as secretary.

Closer to home, Hill-Vasquez is a dedicated and active participant in numerous activities essential to the identity of the English Department, serving, for example, as a special advisor to English majors seeking Secondary Education certification.

Hill-Vasquez has a B.A. in English and Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English from the University of Washington.

Matthew Mio
Mio’s ties to the University go back to the mid-1990s when he was an undergraduate in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He was active in many areas of student life, serving as an officer in the Chemistry Club, writing and editing for the Varsity News, and co-authoring the UDM fight song and later the alma mater.

Mio earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at UDM in 1997 and was named class valedictorian. He received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has the reputation as an excellent, although "tough" teacher, and he is continually assessing techniques that work well in the classroom. He developed a forensic chemistry course entitled "CSI: Detroit" that encompasses the fundamentals of chemistry, but also includes professional forensics experts to speak to the students.

He works with undergraduate students in his research lab, resulting in several presentations at regional and national scientific meetings by Mio and his students. His students have also presented their work at the College of Engineering & Science Research Symposia and at local American Chemical Society student research days.

Mio also serves as co-moderator of the Chemistry Club, which is a very active organization with a variety of professional, service and social activities.  Under his directorship, the Chemistry Club has been awarded "Outstanding Chapter" status several times by the American Chemical Society—a distinction reserved for only approximately 25 of over 300 active student chapters in the nation. He is a member of departmental and College committees and is currently active in several University Shared Governance committees and task forces.

Shulamith Schlick
For decades, Shulamith Schlick has been a tireless researcher within the UDM Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.  She has forged numerous connections and professional collaborations with other scientists throughout the world, with especially fruitful partnerships occurring between her and her research group, as well as with researchers in Poland, Sweden and Japan.

Schlick earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and her master’s and Ph.D. in chemistry from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Schlick's funding level, publication rate, and publication prestige level are equal to or exceed many of her colleagues throughout the country.

Her students consistently rate her as a "tough but fair" teacher in her graduate and undergraduate classes. Hundreds of men and women who are working in the field today owe much of their understanding and expertise to her. In addition, Schlick has been a champion for women in science for many years.  From a past in which she was most likely the only woman in the room to today, she never ceases to advocate for women in chemistry and in science-based fields in general.  As such, she has become a role model for many young women who are, or have been, in the department.

Schlick continues to be recognized as a leader in her field. Her most recent accolades include the 2007 Maria Sklodowska-Curie Medal from the Polish Radiation Research Society, a Special Creativity Award from the National Science Foundation's Division of Materials Research Polymer Program and an honorary degree from the University of Stockholm.