Accolades is an occasional News Center feature that highlights recent accomplishments of UT Dallas faculty and students. To submit items for consideration, contact your school’s communication manager.

Geoscientist Honored for Outstanding Scientific Contributions

Dr. Robert Stern

Dr. Robert Stern

Dr. Robert Stern, professor of geosciences in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, has been elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

The honor is given to AGU members who have made exceptional scientific contributions and gained prominence in their respective fields of Earth and space sciences.

Stern’s citation was for “fundamental insights into subduction inception, ophiolite origins, arc and continent evolution, and the onset of plate tectonics.”

An expert on plate tectonics — the structure and movement of the Earth’s crust over time — Stern has studied complex geological systems from the Pacific Ocean to the African desert. Among his accomplishments, he has taken part in the discovery of an extinct underwater volcano and hydrothermal vents teeming with life deep in the ocean.

Stern leads the University’s participation in a joint U.S.-Japanese Mariana Trench research group, which over several years has involved faculty, research scientists and undergraduate and graduate students in oceanographic studies. The Mariana Trench, located in the western Pacific Ocean just south of Japan, is the site of the ocean’s deepest point and marks a boundary between two slowly moving plates of the Earth’s crust.

“AGU Fellows are recognized for their outstanding contributions to scholarship and discovery in the Earth and space sciences,” Eric Davidson, AGU president, said in a news release. “Their work not only expands the realm of human knowledge, but also contributes to the scientific understanding needed for building a sustainable future.”

Stern and his fellow honorees will be recognized in December during the AGU’s fall meeting in New Orleans.

Associate Provost Wins International Studies Book Award

Dr. Paul F. Diehl

Dr. Paul F. Diehl

Dr. Paul F. Diehl, associate provost, director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Ashbel Smith Professor of Political Science, has been honored as the 2017 winner of the J. David Singer Book Award for “The Puzzle of Peace: The Evolution of Peace in the International System, published by Oxford University Press.

The award is presented by the International Studies Association Midwest for the best book in international studies over the past three years. The association will present the award at a conference later this month.

Diehl, who teaches in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, co-authored the book with Dr. Gary Goertz of the University of Notre Dame and Dr. Alexandru Balas of the State University of New York at Cortland.

The book also was a finalist for the Woodrow Wilson Award, given by the American Political Science Association to the best book in political science published during the past year.