Posted: Tuesday, August 19, 2014

University of Evansville professors Michael Cullen and Mark Cirino were honored on Tuesday, August 19 with the Sadelle and Sydney Berger Awards for service and scholarly activity. The two were presented with the awards by Charlie Berger during UE’s Fall Conference.

Cullen, professor of biology and chair of the Department of Biology, was given the Berger Award for his exemplary service to the University. He has been both an inspiring teacher and a dedicated leader in the UE community during his 18-year career at the University

He has served on numerous UE committees including the Academic Affairs Committee, Admissions Advisory Committee, faculty governance committees, advisory committees, and search committees. Cullen helped develop and then subsequently served on the Science Advisory Council. He played a key role in a plan for a new greenhouse on campus. 

One of those who nominated him stated that they have rarely seen anyone work harder to improve his department or the University. 

A strong supporter of faculty scholarship and student research, his own work has been published in several peer-review journals. Cullen is a member of such professional groups as the American Society for Cell Biology, the Society of Neuroscience and the American Society for Neurochemistry.

In 2000, Cullen was named the Mortar Board Professor of the Semester and received the Dean’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award for the 2000-2001 academic year.

Cirino, professor of English, received the Berger Award for scholarly activity. A national figure in Hemingway studies, he has made many conference presentations on Hemingway, and was co-director of the recent 16th biennial Hemingway conference in Venice, Italy

He has published several books and articles relative to the works of Ernest Hemingway. Reviewers of his book Ernest Hemingway: Thought in Action were impressed with his insightful rethinking of Hemingway’s image.

Cirino is also a contributing editor to the Hemingway Letters Project, and series editor for Kent State University Press’s Reading Hemingway series. Both are important contributions to Hemingway scholarship.

When nominating him, a colleague praised him for his commitment to building scholarly community saying that he “looks for opportunity for collaboration and not just individual accomplishment.”

Cirino has had two of his works published in The Proceedings of the Modern Language Association (PLMA), the leading journal for literary studies with a circulation of more than 33,000. In addition, he is the author of two novels, Arizona Blues and Name the Baby. The latter was a Library Debut Novel of the Year.

In 2012, Cirino was named a Global Scholar by the Institute for Global Enterprise in Indiana at UE.

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