Richard Bundy, professor of music education in the College of Arts and Architecture and director of the Penn State Blue Band, has received the 2009 President's Award for Engagement with Students. The award is given to a faculty member who goes beyond his or her responsibilities to engage and encourage students in learning. The honorees have made themselves available to interact with students outside class, link students to opportunities, and help them build their confidence as learners and potential contributors to society.

Daryl Durran, associate professor of music in the College of Arts and Architecture, is the recipient of the 2009 Undergraduate Program Leadership Award. The award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated exemplary leadership benefiting a Penn State undergraduate degree program. Specifically, it recognizes those individuals who have major responsibilities for the delivery of undergraduate education within a unit and who are providing leadership that has transformed or revitalized the undergraduate program in some way.

Five University professors have received the 2009 Faculty Scholar Medals for Outstanding Achievement. Established in 1980, the award recognizes scholarly or creative excellence represented by a single contribution or a series of contributions around a coherent theme. A committee of faculty peers reviews nominations and selects candidates. The 2009 receipients are J. Martin Bollinger Jr., professor of chemistry and biochemistry and molecular biology in the Eberly College of Science, the physical sciences medal; Velvet M. Brown, professor of music in the College of Arts and Architecture, the arts and humanities medal; D. Wayne Osgood, professor of crime, law, and justice and sociology in the College of the Liberal Arts, the social and behavioral sciences medal; Clive A. Randall, professor of materials science and engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, the engineering medal, and Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky, professor of kinesiology in the College of Health and Human Development, the life and health sciences medal.

Carol Scheffner Hammer, associate professor of communication sciences and disorders in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development, was recently awarded a $500,000 Head Start-University Partnership Grant that studies the efficacy of a bilingual school-readiness program called Madres educando a sus ninos/Mothers Educating Their Children, a book-reading program that engages mothers through the Hispanic culture.