Faculty celebrated for achievements at convocation ceremony

February 21, 2023 (Volume 46, Number 12)
Article by Michele Coffill

Provost Mili at the podium in front of three flags

group of people in a semicircle chatting inside a room

man in academic regalia holds an award while others stand and applaud

Provost Fatma Mili gives remarks at the Faculty Convocation ceremony February 14 at the DeVos Center, Loosemore Auditorium.

Photo Credit: Kendra Stanley-Mills

Grand Valley faculty members were celebrated February 14 for their achievements and for "defining the spirit and culture of the university."

Fatma Mili, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs, welcomed faculty members and their guests at the annual Faculty Convocation held at the DeVos Center on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. Mili said it was her honor to celebrate service awardees and award recipients.

"Faculty define the spirit and the culture of the university," Mili said. "Faculty produce new scholarship that transforms the state of knowledge of our society. Faculty bring issues to our collective consciousness and heighten our awareness and sensitivity to them."

Mili said faculty members educate thousands of students each year and work to shape the "intellectual ecosystem of society, and form the moral character of multiple generations."

University Awards for Excellence were presented, as were awards from the Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence and Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center. Descriptions of their research or innovations are posted on the Provost Office website. Faculty members with 25-40 years of service were recognized.

Bopi Biddanda, professor of water resources, gave a convocation address, "Water Stories in the Biosphere: Great Lakes to the Sierra Nevada."

Biddanda told five, one-minute stories about microbes in water systems, including research he conducted with the University of Granada in Spain. He received a Fulbright Scholar award in 2021 to teach and conduct research in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.