Syracuse University will present Arents Awards to five distinguished alumni

Syracuse University will present Arents Awards to five distinguished alumni May 25, 2001Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

The 2001 George Arents Pioneer Medal for outstanding accomplishments will be presented to five distinguished alumni in June. Four medals will be presented in Syracuse during the annual Arents Awards Dinner June 2 at 6:30 p.m. at the OnCenter in downtown Syracuse. Tickets for the dinner are $50 per person and are available through the Office of Alumni Relations, (315) 443-3516. One medal will be presented June 5 at the Conde Nast Building in New York City.  The award is the highest alumni honor the University bestows. Honorees who will receive their awards at the Arents Awards Dinner June 2 in Syracuse are Lansing G. Baker G’64, Ph.D ’72, former SU senior vice president for university relations; Walter D. Broadnax Ph.D. ’75, dean of the School of Public Affairs at American University and former deputy secretary and chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Elsa Reichmanis ’72, Ph.D.’75, director of the polymers and organic materials research department with Lucent Technologies; and Bob Costas ’74, broadcaster with NBC and HBO. Bruce S. Fowle ’60, senior principal in the firm of Fox and Fowle Architects in New York City, will receive the award June 5 at the Conde Nast Building in New York City.  Emmy-winning writer/producer Aaron Sorkin ’83 was selected to receive an Arents Award at a special ceremony in Los Angeles in June. After a recent conversation, Sorkin and Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw agreed to postpone the ceremony so Sorkin could devote his attention to pressing personal matters. Discussions will continue over the next few months to determine the best time to reschedule the event. Lansing G. Baker, Arents Pioneer Medal for excellence in the field of education  Baker retired last December after more than 40 years in the field of education. Most recently, he was senior vice president for university relations at SU. As one of six senior officers at the University, he had broad responsibility for all aspects of institutional advancement and external relations, including the offices of Development, Alumni Relations, Corporate and Foundation Relations, International Relations, University Communications and Special Events. He also headed University Relations operations in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Under Baker’s leadership, the University met and exceeded the $300 million goal in the seven-year Commitment to Learning campaign. At the campaign’s conclusion in December, more than $370 million had been raised.  Baker joined SU in 1981 as executive vice president of Utica College, and served as president of Utica College from 1982 to 1987. Prior to his tenure at Utica College he was superintendent of Jamesville-DeWitt Central Schools for seven years, and previously served as an assistant superintendent, principal and vice principal. Baker began his career in education in 1959 as a high school mathematics teacher. He has also served as an instructor and guest lecturer at SU, Le Moyne College and several other colleges and universities. As an educational consultant, he worked with Peabody University, the New York State Education Department and more than 150 public and private school systems in the United States, Canada and Great Britain.  Baker has held leadership positions with the Boy Scouts of America and the United Way of Central New York, and serves or has served on the boards of directors of numerous organizations, including HBC, Community-General Hospital (chair), St. Luke’s Hospital Center and the Urban League of Onondaga County. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church and is a former member of Rotary International and Phi Delta Kappa.  Walter D. Broadnax, Arents Pioneer Medal for excellence in the field of public service Broadnax, a member of the SU Board of Trustees, became dean of American University’s School of Public Affairs July 1, 1999, after three years as professor of public policy and management in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland, where he directed the Bureau of Governmental Research.  Prior to joining the University of Maryland faculty, Broadnax served as deputy secretary and chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; president of the Center for Governmental Research Inc. in Rochester; president of the New York State Civil Service Commission; lecturer and director of Innovations in State and Local Government Programs in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; a senior staff member of The Brookings Institution; principal deputy assistant secretary for planning and evaluation with the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare; director of Children, Youth and Adult Services for the State of Kansas; and professor at The Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Va.  Considered one of America’s leading scholar-practitioners in the field of public policy and management, Broadnax was awarded the Hubert Humphrey Award in 1994 by the Policy Studies Organization for his accomplishments as a public policy practitioner. He has published widely in the field and served in leadership positions in various professional associations, including the American Society for Public Administration, the American Political Science Association, the Association of Public Policy and Management, the American Public Personnel Association and the National Association of State Personnel Executives.  Broadnax is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a former trustee of the academy’s board. He served as president of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration from 1999 to 2000. He has also served on several corporate and nonprofit boards of directors including those of Keycorp Bank, Rochester General Hospital, Rochester United Way and the Ford Foundation/Harvard University Innovations in State and Local Government Program. 

He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Washburn University of Topeka in 1967, a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Kansas in 1969 and a doctorate from The Maxwell School in 1975. He is a member of The Maxwell School Advisory Board.  Bob Costas, Arents Pioneer Medal for excellence in the field of sports broadcasting  While studying in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in the mid-70s, Costas went to work at WSYR Radio in Syracuse as a play-by-play announcer. Within a year, he had landed a job at KMOX Radio in St. Louis, a station highly regarded for its sports broadcasting. There, he broadcast a wide variety of live play-by-play and studio programs from 1974 through 1981, including play-by-play for the American Basketball Association’s Spirits of St. Louis team, and regional National Football League and National Basketball Association telecasts for CBS.  Costas joined NBC Sports in 1979 and has covered every major sport. He anchored NBC’s prime time coverage of the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000), and is scheduled to host the coverage of the Winter Games in Salt Lake City (2002).  He teamed with Tony Kubek on NBC’s “Game of the Week” telecasts from 1983 to 1989, hosted the network’s “NFL Live” pre-game show from 1984 to 1992, and was the play-by-play host of the NBA on NBC from 1997 through the 1999-2000 season.  During the past few years, Costas returned to baseball, handling play-by-play for NBC’s All-Star, League Championship and World Series telecasts. His book, “Fair Ball: A Fan’s Case for Baseball” (Broadway Books, 2000), spent several weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List. He is a frequent contributor to NBC News as a reporter and interviewer. His Emmy Award-winning show, “Later … With Bob Costas” (1989 to 1994), featured in-depth interviews with newsmakers, entertainers and personalities. In February, HBO launched “On the Record With Bob Costas,” a weekly program of issues, interviews and commentary.  Costas has won 12 Emmy Awards and has been named “National Sportscaster of the Year” an unprecedented eight times.  Bruce S. Fowle, Arents Pioneer Medal for excellence in the field of architecture  Bruce S. Fowle co-founded Fox and Fowle Architects, a leading New York City design firm, more than 20 years ago. As the principal-in-charge of design, has accumulated a portfolio of award-winning projects and a lifetime of personal achievement.  Among his best-known projects are the Conde Nast Building, the American Craft Museum, theAmerican Bible Society and the Herman Miller Showroom, all in New York City, and the Bausch and Lomb Headquarters and Wintergarden in Rochester, N.Y.  The 48-story Conde Nast Building, the recipient of an American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2001 Institute Honor Award for Design, has been recognized as setting new directions for sustainable architecture and energy efficient high-rise buildings. 

Fowle’s firm has an international reputation for excellence, and has built in China, Korea and Indonesia. His current projects include the Reuters Building in Times Square, an office building for Merrill Lynch in Jersey City, N.J., and The New York Times Headquarters in Manhattan, which he is co-designing with an Italian architect.  Fowle was named to the AIA’s College of Fellows in 1985 and was elected academician of the National Academy of Design in 1994. He is a member of the AIA Design Committee and a Fellow of the Urban Design Institute. He is former vice president of the New York chapter of the AIA and serves as chair of the AIA/NY Zoning and Urban Design Committee, where he is helping to shape public policy in New York City.  He received the AIA’s 1994 Harry B. Rutkins Award for his contributions toward the innovative rezoning of Upper East Side avenues in New York City. Fowle was a founder and chairman of the Board of Architects, Designers and Planners for Social Responsibility/New York chapter. He served on the board of Graham-Windham Services to Families and Children and is a member of the board of governors of Eugene Lang College. He is a longtime proponent of environmentally responsible design and is a frequent visiting critic at schools of architecture.  From 1970 to 1977, Fowle was an associate in the firm of Edward Larrabee Barnes, FAIA. His prior experience includes designing educational facilities, hotels and private residences.  He earned a bachelor’s degree from SU’s School of Architecture in 1960 and has served as the chair of the School of Architecture Advisory Committee for 20 years. He has also supported the school’s major funding projects.  Elsa Reichmanis, Arents Pioneer Medal for excellence in the field of chemistry  Elsa Reichmanis was just 18 when she earned a bachelor’s degree–magna cum laude–in chemistry at SU in 1972. She received a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1975 (at age 21) and then continued her studies at the University through various fellowships and internships. During that time, she received the Chaim Weizmann Postdoctoral Fellowship for Scientific Research and worked as an organic chemist.  In 1978, she joined Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., as a member of the technical staff in the organic chemistry research department. She served as supervisor of the Radiation Sensitive Materials and Applications Group and head of the polymer and organic materials research department. She is now director of the polymer and organic materials research department at Bell Labs, which is the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies.  Reichmanis’ research focuses on resistant materials, radiation sensitive materials, photosensitive elements, bi-level resist compositions, semiconductor devices and lithographic materials. Her research has received international attention and has resulted in  17 patents. During her early years with Bell Labs, Reichmanis’ research group predicted the need for advanced materials that would allow silicon chips to continue shrinking in size while also improving their performance. These chips are now incorporated into personal computers, communications devices and other electronics products. 

She received the Society of Women Engineers’ Achievement Award in 1993, and the American Chemical Society’s Award in Applied Polymer Science in 1999. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1995 for her discovery, development and engineering leadership of new families of lithographic materials and processes. Election to the NAE by one’s peers is the highest recognition an engineer can achieve.  Reichmanis is a member of several professional organizations, including the National Academy of Engineering, the Air Force Science Advisory Board, the Materials Research Society, the Society of Women Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society. She is the author of several books and papers.