ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – Winthrop University will honor three faculty members at its May Commencement ceremonies for their creative teaching methods, outstanding research and dedication to community service.
Interim President George Hynd will recognize Chemistry Professor Cliff Calloway on May 7 as recipient of the Distinguished Professor Award, the highest recognition for faculty members, and Hye-Sung Kim, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, with the Outstanding Junior Professor Award.
Hynd will present the Jane LaRoche Graduate Faculty Award to Associate Professor Stephanie Lawson of the College of Business Administration during the May 6 Graduate Commencement ceremony.
Read more about the honorees:
Distinguished Professor
Cliff Calloway, professor of chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Physics, Geology and the Environment, is the 2021 Distinguished Professor. Known as an innovative and inspiring teacher whose interests focus on analytical chemistry, he joined the Winthrop faculty in 1995.
For his department, Calloway serves as its analytical instrumentation manager – having secured and maintained more than $4 million in scientific instrumentation – and upkeeps more than 75 computers not managed by the university’s IT department.
Calloway’s foresight has meant that Winthrop undergraduates can work with instrumentation that their peers at other institutions only read about.
Calloway has introduced computer-based molecular modeling, high field nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and cooperative learning to the introductory chemistry labs. He also has incorporated instrument-based analytical chemistry labs into the quantitative analysis lab course using a wide variety of modern instrumentation.
He also is widely known for his work with students on the testing of the heat of the locally grown Carolina Reaper pepper.
In addition to his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Wake Forest, Calloway earned an M.S. in chemistry from Appalachian State University and a B.A. in chemistry from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
Outstanding Junior Professor
Hye-Sung Kim, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, is the university’s 2021 Outstanding Junior Professor. She joined the Winthrop faculty in 2017 to teach courses on comparative politics, research methods, international political economy, African politics and ethnic politics.
Kim's research examines the political economy of development in Africa. She focuses on the extent to which marginalized communities across the globe experience threats to their human security and helps generate solutions for such threats.
She has taken students on two trips to Africa and plans to offer study abroad courses every other spring once the pandemic ends. She has greatly helped augment the quantitative reasoning and data science methodological approaches to the discipline of political science at Winthrop.
Kim is recognized by leadership for finding a synergy between her research and teaching. Plus, she presented at conferences and contributed to her department and the university, including helping launch a thematic faculty-student research initiative called “Movements of the COVID-19 Era.”
Kim received a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester, a Master of Arts in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, an M.A. in economics from Seoul National University, and a B.A. in economics from the University of Calgary.
Jane LaRoche Graduate Faculty Award
Stephanie Lawson, an associate professor of marketing in the College of Business Administration, is the 2021 Jane LaRoche Graduate Faculty Award recipient. She came to Winthrop in 2013 as an assistant professor and was promoted in 2019 to associate professor. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in marketing and data analytics, while her research interests include collaborative consumption, access-based services, sustainability and Native American issues in marketing.
Administrators said Lawson has dedicated her time to enhancing the university’s M.B.A. curriculum through course innovations and service learning activities. As a teacher, she is known for being innovative, experiential and involves her classes in supporting the local community, including two businesses started by Winthrop alumni.
Two years ago, Lawson was awarded the university’s 2019 Outstanding Junior Faculty Award. She also was the 2019 Winthrop CBA Service Award and 2015 Winthrop CBA Research Award recipient.
Lawson earned her B.A. in communication, an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in business administration with an emphasis in marketing, all from Florida State University.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at 803/323-2404 and longshawj@winthrop.edu.
