DATE: Dec. 8, 2005
CONTACT: Sally Logue Post
sally.post@ttu.edu (806) 742-2136
Two faculty members from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and two from
Texas Tech University today (Dec. 8) received the Chancellor’s Council Distinguished
Teaching and Research Awards.
The Distinguished Teaching Award goes to Susan Saab Fortney, professor in the Texas
Tech School of Law. Lynn Bickley, M.D., professor of internal medicine, associate
dean for curriculum in the School of Medicine and director for geriatrics education
at the Garrison Institute on Aging, received the teaching award for the Health Sciences
Center.
The Distinguished Research Award at the Health Sciences Center goes to Paula Grammas,
professor of neuropsychiatry and executive director of the Garrison Institute on Aging.
At Texas Tech, Shaorong Liu, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry is the research award recipient.
“The heart and soul of this university is its great teachers and researchers,” said
Kent R. Hance, chancellor of the Texas Tech University System. “It’s vital that we
have professors who can inspire our students and researchers who can come up with
solutions to problems that help not only our university but out society. I am proud
that we are able to honor four of our best faculty members in this way.”
This is the sixth year for the Chancellor’s Council to present the awards. The winners
will receive a plaque and a $10,000 cash award. The Chancellor’s Council raises funds
to support student scholarship, faculty recruitment and support and other programs.
Fortney, who is the George H. Mahon Professor of Law, is an expert in legal ethics
and professional responsibility. This year, she organized and taught the nation’s
first Health Care and Bioethics Mediation Clinic to help prepare law students to mediate
health care-related disputes. She is also writing the first ever law school textbook
on legal malpractice. A winner of numerous teaching awards, Fortney continuously earns
high marks on student evaluations and from her peers. Fortney earned her bachelor’s
degree from Trinity University, her juris doctor degree from Antioch School of Law
and a doctor of the sciences of law degree from Columbia School of Law. She came to
Texas Tech in 1992.
Bickley came to the Health Sciences Center in 1999. She has recently secured grants
for student and physician training in geriatrics and to develop a patient-centered
cultural competence curriculum from the National Institutes of Health. She is author
of the “Bates’ Guide to History-Taking and Physician Examination” which used by 70
percent of United States medical students and published in 27 countries. She has overseen
the first comprehensive curriculum redesign at the School of Medicine since its founding.
She is an expert in teaching medical students how to perform physical examinations
and take medical histories, and serves on a national committee setting standards for
teaching clinical skills. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Smith College and
her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Grammas joined the Health Sciences Center in 2004 as the executive director of the
Garrison Institute on Aging. Since 1990, Grammas has received funding totaling $12.3
million from numerous local and national sources. For her contributions to Alzheimer’s
research Grammas was one of five investigators nationwide to receive a Zenith Award
in 1998. She has also been the recipient of several honors, including the Alfred M.
Shideler Professorship in Pathology, Presbyterian Health Foundation Chair in Neuroscience,
Award for Outstanding Achievement in Alzheimer Research, and most recently the Mildred
and Shirley L. Garrison Chair in Aging at the Health Sciences Center. She earned her
bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and her doctorate in pathology from Wayne State
University.
Liu is an expert in nanotechnology and was recently named a “Nano 50” by the journal
“Nanotech Briefs.” The award recognized the nation’s top 50 technologies, products
and innovations that have significantly impacted the field. In the four years that
Liu has been at Texas Tech, he has been awarded more than $2.1 million in direct research
funding. He is working to develop a hybrid chip device that could help physicians
and researchers understand diseases better and aid in faster diagnosis of some diseases.
Liu holds four patents and has published numerous articles. He earned his bachelor’s
and master’s degrees in China and his doctorate from Texas Tech. He returned to Texas
Tech in 2002 after postdoctoral experience at Northeastern University and the University
of California. He also holds a master’s of business administration from Golden Gate
University.