The 2018 Edward A. Dickson Emeritus/a Professorship has been awarded to UCR Emeritus/a Professors David Fairris, Department of Economics; Wendy Rogers, Department of Dance; and Susan Hackwood, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering.

The three awardees were recommended by the University Committee on Faculty Welfare.

“We received a number of quality proposals and had to examine them very carefully to select the winners,” said Daniel Jeske, committee chair and professor of statistics at UCR. “The role of the faculty welfare committee in selecting the Dickson awardees is among the most enjoyable responsibilities of the committee.”

The Edward A. Dickson Emeritus/a Professorship Award is presented yearly to an emeritus/a professor on the basis of a compelling project in teaching, research, or public service activities. Awardee(s) shall be known as the Edward A. Dickson Emeritus/a Professor for the duration of the award (one year). Recipients also receive a monetary award of up to $6,000 and up to $3,000 in research support.

Fairris, former vice provost for undergraduate education and professor emeritus of economics, was honored for his research surrounding minimum wage. In an online survey, Fairris asks supporters of minimum wage the following: “Is the moral basis for a minimum wage to improve the income of the working poor or to insure a right to decent pay?” The answer, he said, will have important implications for policy discussions regarding minimum wage.

“In the former case, a variety of policy instruments besides minimum wages is available to achieve the goal (e.g., earned income tax credits). In the latter, minimum wages are the only measure by which society prevents jobs from existing that do not provide decent pay.”

Rogers, choreographer and performer for over 40 years and professor emerita in the Department of Dance, was recognized for her work creating, producing, and performing in “beginning(s), middle(s) and end(s).” The new choreography, including a commissioned work for company members of the San Diego Dance Theater, will premiere in April 2019 at the annual Live Arts Festival in San Diego. Rogers said the process of creating anew by revisiting the active legacy of her body of work will provide an opportunity to reflect on both artistic form and the poetic metaphors of life’s passage.

Hackwood, executive director of the California Council on Science and Technology, or CCST, and a professor emerita of electrical and computer engineering, has been awarded for her work in the Science to Policy Program at UCR. The program, a partnership with CCST, aims to help doctoral students explore how a graduate in the sciences can become a welcome, known, and trusted voice in public policy. Hackwood, the founding Dean of the Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering, said she will put all funds from the award into the policy program.