Two faculty members received the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by NC State and the university’s Board of Trustees. Chancellor Randy Woodson will recognize the awardees during the Celebration of Faculty Excellence on May 1.
The 2023 honorees are:
- Jerzy Bernholc, Drexel Professor, Department of Physics
- Mary Haskett, Professor, Department of Psychology
The award was named in honor of Alexander Quarles Holladay, NC State’s first professor of history and its first president. This year’s award winners have made outstanding and sustained contributions to the university through achievements in research, teaching, or extension and engagement. Honorees receive an engraved medal and framed certificate, and will be honored at NC State’s spring commencement ceremony on May 6.
“We are proud of what Jerzy and Mary have accomplished throughout their careers,” said Chancellor Randy Woodson. “Their contributions to NC State have made us a stronger university, and their expertise has advanced their respective fields. It is an honor to present them with this year’s Holladay Medals.”
Bernholc received his Ph.D. in 1977 from the University of Lund, Sweden. He joined the NC State faculty as an associate professor in the Department of Physics in 1986, was promoted to professor in 1990 and named a Drexel Professor in 2000. He quickly established a world-class theoretical program in materials physics and formed one of the country’s largest and best-funded academic research groups. His research endeavors are extensive and varied, as evidenced by his work on novel forms of carbon, semiconductor physics, polymers for energy applications, computational biology, cutting-edge computational methods and computational materials science.
In 2004, Bernholc co-founded the Center for High Performance Simulation (ChiPS) at NC State, and served as its director until 2017. CHiPS was formed to consolidate high-performance computing and simulation expertise across departments and nurture interdisciplinary interactions and proposals. Since 2002, he has served as a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratories (ORNL), initiating and collaborating on many joint ORNL-NC State funding initiatives and grants, and advising ORNL’s management.
Bernholc is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society (APS) and the Materials Research Society. He received the Albert Nelson Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award, the Jesse Beams Award for Outstanding Research from the APS and the NC State Alumni Outstanding Research Award. He has served as chair of the Division of Computational Physics of the APS and is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.
Haskett received her Ph.D. in school and clinical psychology from Florida State University in 1988. She joined the NC State faculty in 1991 in the Department of Psychology. She currently leads a team that addresses critical problems through translational science and engages in extension that benefits the public health and welfare of citizens. Her research focuses on the causes, consequences and treatment of adverse experiences in early childhood, particularly maltreatment and family homelessness.
Haskett co-founded three major initiatives to translate her scholarship to direct support for vulnerable children and families: Project CATCH (Community Action Target Children who are Homeless) with the Salvation Army of Wake County; Project REACH (Resilience, Empowerment, Access for Children Experiencing Homelessness) with Passage Homes of Wake County, and Yay Babies NC, which promotes access to early childhood services for young children experiencing homelessness in partnership with the Child Care Services Association of North Carolina.
Known as a fierce advocate for under-resourced students, Haskett is co-chair of the NC State Steering Committee on Student Food and Housing Security and serves as the higher education representative to the Wake County Affordable Housing Work Group. Haskett also promotes solutions to college student homelessness through her leadership in a City of Raleigh/NC State partnership via the National League of Cities: College Student Basic Needs Initiative.
Her engagement has been recognized through numerous awards including the NC State Outstanding Extension Award, the Campus Sustainability Achievement Award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, and the Chancellor’s Creating Community Award from the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity. Haskett has also been elected as a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.
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