U. announces winners of Beacons of Excellence Awards

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah has announced winners of the Transforming U: Beacons of Excellence Awards, recognizing and celebrating examples of best practices by individuals, programs, centers or projects on campus.

The six recipients include Matt Bradley (posthumously), a professor in the Honors College; Ganesh Gopalakrishnan, a professor in the College of Engineering; Hester Henderson, founder of the UFIT Program, College of Health; Mark Nielsen, a professor of anatomy and the Human Anatomy Lab, College of Science; the Native American Research Internship Program, School of Medicine; and the University of Utah fraternity and sorority community, Dean of Students Office.

The winners will be honored at a ceremony from noon to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 31 in the University Union Ballroom.

Bradley was a distinguished assistant professor in the University of Utah Honors College, where he led several programs on social justice and change, according news release from the university. He died in March.

Gopalakrishnan is a professor in the School of Computing, principal investigator for the Formal Analysis for Concurrency Group and director of the Center for Parallel Computing, which he was instrumental in founding in 2009.

UFIT is a program that teaches special needs children and their families how to be physically fit. Founded by Hester Henderson, special adapted physical education mentor, the UFIT program provides support for many families each year,  serves the community, provides educational opportunities for students and supports health and fitness.

The Human Anatomy Lab, under the direction of Mark Nielsen, professor of anatomy, provides undergraduate students interested in health-related professions the unique opportunity to work with and study the structure of the human body and how it works.

The Native American Research Internship Program offers paid research internships to Native American undergraduate students pursuing careers in the biomedical and health science professions.

The purposes of fraternities and sororities is to promote the values of scholarship, leadership, service and philanthropy. The Greek system includes members of the PanHellenic Council, the Interfraternity Council, Multicultural Greek Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council.