Faculty Receive Fellowships, Awards for Exceptional Research Contributions
WCER researchers Haley Vlach and Bernadette Baker among honorees
May 19, 2022 | By WCER Communications
Haley Vlach, left, and Bernadette Baker are honorees for exceptional research contributions.
Thirty-two members of the UW–Madison faculty have been awarded fellowships from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education (OVCRGE) for 2022-23, including two with WCER/School of Education ties: Haley Vlach and Bernadette Baker.
Vlach is one of 13 to receive an H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship, which recognizes faculty with exceptional research contributions within their first six years from promotion to a tenured position. The award is named in recognition of the late WARF trustees president H.I. Romnes and comes with $60,000 that may be spent over five years.
Vlach is a WCER researcher and a professor of educational psychology and director of the Learning, Cognition & Development Lab. Her research examines children’s cognitive development, including their ability to remember information, acquire language and construct concepts.
Baker is one of 11 to receive a Kellett Mid-Career Award, which supports those promoted to tenured positions seven to 20 years ago who have made key research contributions in their fields. The award is named for the late WARF board of trustees president William R. Kellett and comes with $75,000 to be spent over five years.
Baker is a WCER researcher and a professor of curriculum and instruction. Her work draws upon multiple disciplines as they intersect with past-present curriculum debates, conceptions of knowledge, and social and educational inclusion/exclusion. Her research uses a variety of approaches in curriculum studies, educational history and philosophy, and contemporary policies and practices focused on well-being. She received a Fulbright fellowship and has led major national and international curriculum associations.
“These awards provide an opportunity for campus to recognize our outstanding faculty,” says Steve Ackerman, vice chancellor for research and graduate education, about all the awardees. “They highlight faculty efforts to support the research, teaching, outreach and public service missions of the university.”
The awards are possible due to the research efforts of UW–Madison faculty and staff. Technology that arises from these efforts is licensed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the income from successful licenses is returned to the OVCRGE, where it is used to fund research activities and awards throughout the four divisions on campus: arts and humanities, physical sciences, social sciences and biological sciences.
