Trustees grant emeritus status to four

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Four longtime faculty were elevated to emeritus status during The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees meeting Sept. 19. They are J. Barry Andrews, Melissa Mauser Galvin, Charles L. Turnbough Jr. and Jerry W. Stephens.

barry andrews2AndrewsJ. Barry Andrews, Ph.D., was named professor emeritus of engineering after a career that spanned more than 40 total years as a student and faculty in the UAB School of Engineering.  

Andrews, who a part of the school’s first graduating class in 1970, joined its faculty as assistant professor of materials science and engineering in 1976, after earning his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Florida.

Andrews was recruited to begin the metals-casting program, which he did, in the only space available — on the third floor of Cudworth Hall. "In those days, everyone just did whatever they had to do to make things work," he said. "We managed to get a foundry set up, and we operated our metals casting program out of that foundry until the Business-Engineering Complex was built in 1984. At that point, we moved into a 2,000-square-foot foundry with an overhead crane and everything that we needed."

Shortly after, in 1986, Andrews was appointed professor, and within a decade he sent experiments into space aboard the Space Shuttle to do pioneering research into immiscible alloys at zero gravity. His research program was well funded by several national agencies, including NASA, the NSF and the Department of Energy, and in 2003, he became chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Andrews has been the recipient of various UAB, local, national and international awards including Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching, the UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Ellen Gregg Ingalls/UAB National Alumni Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Teaching.

melissa galvinGalvinMelissa Mauser Galvin, Ph.D., was named professor emerita of health behavior in in the School of Public Health.   

Galvin is a scientist and scholar whose contributions have helped shape health promotion in aging and geriatrics, community-based public health and workforce training and evaluation. She tirelessly served UAB, the state and the nation through her contributions to school committees, county and state public health agencies and taskforces, the White House Conference on Aging, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the academic community.

She joined UAB as assistant scholar in the Center for Health Risk Assessment and Disease Prevention in 1985, the same year she earned her master of public health degree in epidemiology from the School of Public Health. She was appointed assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior in 1991 and completed her second UAB degree — a doctorate in health education and gerontology — in 1992.

Galvin, who was appointed interim associate dean for Student and Academic Affairs in 2003, distinguished herself in the permanent role from 2007 to 2014, diligently serving the school and ensuring its continued accreditation and high-quality instructional programs. She was elevated to professor in 2011.

Galvin has been the recipient of various UAB, local and national awards and honors including the Outstanding Public Health Service Faculty Award, an innovation award from the National Association of Development Organizations and the 2002 Governor’s Distinguished Service Award. She also was a former president of the Alabama Gerontological Society and member of the Board of the Alabama Public Health Association.

jerry stephens2StephensJerry W. Stephens, Ph.D., who was named librarian emeritus, was only the second person to lead UAB’s Mervyn H. Sterne Library.

Stephens began his 40-year career in 1974 at UAB, after completing a bachelor of science in accounting degree here. He served in increasingly responsible positions before being appointed librarian and director of Sterne Library in 1985, a position he held until his retirement in May 2014.

During his tenure, Stephens provided significant leadership for improved access to online information as a founder and three-time chair of the Network of Alabama Academic Libraries, and he led the way in the implementation of the Alabama Virtual Library, which provides diverse and extensive electronic library resources to state residents. He extended his support to numerous public and academic library initiatives, and his honors included the Eminent Librarian Award from the Alabama Library Association.

Along the way, Stephens was assistant vice president for academic affairs and fiscal officer for University College, received his masters in business administration degree from UAB and was an assistant professor of accounting in the UAB School of Business and a member of its graduate faculty from 1991-2014. He earned a master’s degree in library science and a doctorate in administration of higher education from The University of Alabama in 1977 and 1982, respectively.

“A lot has changed in 40 years, and it has been a great experience to have contributed to the development of UAB,” Stephens said upon his retirement. “As an alumnus, I am proud to say that UAB afforded me the opportunity to gain knowledge that changed my world. It has been an honor and a privilege to have worked with every president and with an extraordinary group of faculty and staff.”

chuck turnbough2TurnboughCharles L. Turnbough Jr., Ph.D., who retired March 31, 2014, after 34 years of service as a highly accomplished and productive scientist, teacher and administrator, was named professor emeritus of microbiology.

Turnbough, who presented hundreds of lectures to graduate, medical, dental, and optometry students during his career, is the principal author or co-author of more than 75 scientific papers published in prestigious national and international journals, plus numerous reviews and book chapters.

Additionally, he served on the editorial board of “The Journal of Bacteriology” and numerous grant-review committees for the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, and Research Council of Canada. He also was an advisor for the National Academy of Science Board on Advanced Sensors for Bio-agents, Defense Intelligence Agency and Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Turnbough received multiple awards throughout his career, including election to Fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology and appointment as an American Society for Microbiology Foundation for Microbiology Lecturer.

He held membership in a number of professional and scholarly organizations, including the American Society for Microbiology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, American Academy of Microbiology Awards Committee, and the Science Advisory Board for QTL Biosystems.