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Association honors 7 distinguished UW alumni

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by Ken Harris

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Wisconsin Alumni Association named Monday the seven recipients for the 72nd annual Distinguished Alumni Awards, which honor University of Wisconsin graduates who have achieved a high level of accomplishment in their fields.

According to WAA spokesperson Kate Dixon, the Distinguished Alumni Award is “the highest honor the Wisconsin Alumni Association gives out.” The award is designed to recognize UW graduates who are using their education for the purpose of doing “good things” in the world, she added.

This year’s honorees are Joanne Disch, chair in nursing leadership at the University of Minnesota; Linnea Smith, founder and medical director of the Yanomono Medical Clinic in Peru; UW art professor and former Smithsonian curator Truman Lowe; former president of UW System Board of Regents Sheldon Lubar and his wife, Marianne, who have endowed several UW System programs, according to a WAA statement.

While there are typically four to seven winners of the Distinguished Alumni Award, Dixon said for the first time in the history of the award there are two winners of the Distinguished Young Alumni Award, given to recent graduates.

Stephen Turner, who founded a company that develops DNA sequencing technology and Shihoko Fujiwara, a coordinator for a non-profit organization that fights human trafficking, are the winners of the award this year.

Turner and Fujiwara graduated from UW in ‘91 and ‘03, respectively. All the other recipients received their bachelor’s degree before 1981.

Dixon said past winners of the award include former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, former Sen. Gaylord Nelson, philanthropists John and Tashia Morgridge and actress Jane Kaczmarek from the popular Fox television series “Malcolm in the Middle.”

The award ceremony is scheduled to take place Thursday, May 8, in the Memorial Union’s Wisconsin Union Theater. The ceremony will be free and open to the public.

Some of the winners will also be hosting programs while they are in town to provide students the opportunity to meet them and “pick their brain,” according to Dixon.

She added while the whole lineup of activities is not set, Smith and Disch will be giving mini-lectures with a Q&A session May 9. Turner will also be giving a talk about DNA sequencing at the Wisconsin Genome Center during his trip to Madison.

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Anonymous (April 22, 2008 @ 3:48pm):

When is Austin King going to win an award?

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