Boylan, Simpson, Spellman named 2024 Usibelli Award winners

The University of Alaska Fairbanks has announced the recipients of the 2024 Emil Usibelli Distinguished Teaching, Research and Service Awards.

The Distinguished Teaching Award will go to Brandon Boylan, political science professor and director of the Arctic and Northern studies program in the College of Liberal Arts. The Distinguished Research Award will be presented to William R. Simpson, professor of physical chemistry in the College of Natural Science and Mathematics and the Geophysical Institute. Katie Spellman, research associate professor at the International Arctic Research Center, will receive the Distinguished Service Award.

The Usibelli Award recipients will be honored on Sept. 14 at the university’s annual Blue and Gold Celebration. Tickets are available on the event website.

Brandon Boylan

In numerous letters supporting his nomination, Boylan's colleagues and students describe him as a model scholar-educator who upholds rigorous academic standards while offering generous encouragement and support to graduate and undergraduate students and colleagues.

Boylan's expertise includes international relations and security, political violence, ethnic conflict, separatist movements, and Arctic politics and security. He joined UAF's Department of Political Science, which he currently chairs, in 2013, and he has served as director of Arctic and Northern studies since 2020. Boylan co-founded the Model Arctic Council, an academic program that involves students from around the circumpolar North in collaborative learning exercises related to Arctic challenges and concerns.

Boylan holds a bachelor's degree in English from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania; a master's in international studies from the University of Limerick in Ireland; a master's of business administration from UAF; and a doctoral degree in international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

William Simpson

Simpson is an environmental chemist known for his pioneering research into how the cold and dark winter climate of the Arctic affects the atmospheric processing of pollution. To support this work, he has developed novel spectroscopic instruments to measure trace gases and reactive radicals. He also conducts field experiments into Arctic ozone depletion events.

Simpson is the principal investigator for the Alaskan Layered Pollution and Chemical Analysis project, or ALPACA. This groundbreaking collaboration brought together scientists, public servants and community members to investigate how air pollution behaves in Fairbanks’ winter. In letters of support, Simpson’s colleagues noted that the combination of scientific research with community outreach and education produced results with significant implications for public health and policy in urban environments across the Arctic.

Simpson joined the faculty at UAF in 1997. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a mathematics minor from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Stanford University.

Katie Spellman

Spellman is an ecologist and educator known for making science accessible, relatable and inclusive to all people. Born and raised in Fairbanks, she has devoted her career to sharing her expertise and passion for science with the people most affected by the changing climate: Indigenous communities and children. 

Spellman has volunteered hundreds of hours mentoring K-12 students’ research, organizing science fairs and co-creating citizen science projects to address pressing local issues. Two example projects, Fresh Eyes on Ice and Winterberry, engage Alaska youths in researching native berry species and freshwater ice conditions to improve health and well-being, food security and safety.

Spellman received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. She holds a master’s in biology and a Ph.D. in biological sciences from UAF, where she did her postdoctoral fellowship in education and outreach.

The Usibelli Awards are among the university’s most prestigious awards. They are funded annually from an endowment that Usibelli Coal Mine established in 1992. Each year, a committee that includes members from the UAF faculty, the student body and the UA Foundation board of directors evaluates the nominees. Each winner receives a cash award of $10,000.

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