University Of Virginia Expert’s Book Named One Of The Best Ever
Online publication The Verge recently ranked a 2020 book by University of Virginia media studies associate professor Lana Swartz, “New Money: How Payment Became Social Media,” as No. 12 on its list of the 40 “greatest tech books of all time.”
The publication considered nonfiction books published in English that are still in print.
“We were less interested in works that are supposedly influential and more in ones that have endured, with ideas that are still relevant today, stories that have captured something essential about technology, and writing that’s made us stand up in our seats,” the editors wrote in a story posted June 28. “If the modern tech landscape is defined by obsolescence, then we wanted to celebrate the books about it that have stood the test of time.”
Of “New Money,” The Verge wrote, “Swartz’s observations of how digital money works as a creative (and destructive) force are a must-read for anyone who makes money online.”
The University recently named Swartz as one of its 15 inaugural Shannon Center Mid-Career Fellows.
Mathematician’s Super Bowl Beer Ad Lands an Effie
A humorous Miller beer television advertisement starring UVA math professor Ken Ono and featured during the 2022 Super Bowl won a 2023 Silver Effie from the New York American Marketing Association.
In the ad, Ono first establishes his credentials as a world-renowned mathematician and lays out his vision for elevating the field of mathematics. Then a narrator, seeking to emphasize that Miller’s light beer has fewer calories than a competitor’s product, asks Ono, “What number is smaller, 80 or 64?”
National health care publication Becker’s Hospital Review has named UVA Health’s Heart and Vascular Center to its 2023 list of 100 hospitals and health systems with great heart programs.
In its introduction to this year’s list, Becker’s said the honored institutions “are renowned for their exemplary heart care, patient outcomes and leading technologies.” Institutions that conduct research, such as UVA Health, also contribute to “innovative breakthroughs in the field of cardiology,” Becker’s noted.
The hospital’s cardiology and heart surgery services are nationally recognized, Becker’s said, noting UVA Health’s commitment to cutting-edge research and advancements in cardiac imaging, genetic studies on coronary artery disease, and identifying contributors to high blood pressure.
Dr. Christopher Kramer, UVA Health’s chief of cardiovascular medicine, said the award highlights the comprehensive care available at UVA Health and the quality of the team providing that care.
“I am proud to be part of a team that is so committed to serving our patients,” he said. “This is a well-earned honor for their dedication to providing the highest level of care.”
Engineering Professor Appointed Fellow of American Society of Agronomy
Venkataraman “Venkat” Lakshmi, the John L. Newcomb Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, the highest recognition the society bestows.
Fellowship in the American Society of Agronomy is reserved for up to 3% of the society’s active and emeritus members, with fewer than 12 selections in 2023. Members of the society nominate colleagues based on their records of contributions to agronomy through education, national and international service, and research.
Lakshmi is an international authority on studies of hydrological extremes using in-place and remote-sensing data collection and modeling to make observations about the terrestrial water cycle and to better understand weather, climate and ecology.
His areas of research interest include catchment hydrology, or the study of how water interacts with the Earth’s drainage basins; validating and analyzing hydrology data via satellite; field experiments; land-atmosphere interactions; the “vadose zone,” the area extending from Earth’s ground surface to the water table; and water resources.
An active member of numerous professional societies, Lakshmi is the current president-elect of the Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union, a fellow of the Geological Society of America and the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Lakshmi received his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, and his doctorate from Princeton University. Since joining the School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty in January 2019, his work has been cited more than 5,200 times, according to Google Scholar, and he is on pace to match or exceed his 1,323 citations in 2022.
Law Professor’s Book Named Top Legal Scholarship From 2022
School of Law professor Frederick Schauer won the 2023 Scribes Book Award for “The Proof: Uses of Evidence in Law, Politics, and Everything Else.”
Scribes presents the award for the best work of legal scholarship published during the previous year. The Scribes Book Award Committee receives more than 50 nominees each year.
Schauer’s book explores the use of evidence in courts but also in areas ranging from medicine to art to history and explains what kinds of evidence matter in different contexts.
Schauer is a David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law. He is a world-renowned expert in the areas of constitutional law, evidence, legal reasoning, freedom of speech, and jurisprudence and the philosophy of law.
Schauer’s colleague, law professor G. Edward White, won the award in 1994 for “Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self,” and professor Douglas Laycock won in 1991 for “The Death of the Irreparable Injury Rule.”
In. other Law School honors:
• UVA’s School of Law was ranked No. 3 in Above the Law’s annual law school rankings.
The rankings focus on employment outcomes and draw from the latest American Bar Association employment data. The online blog factors in law school debt and costs, and regional cost-of-living adjustments.
UVA Law had the highest job placement rate in the country last year for permanent, full-time jobs that require passing the bar, with more than 95% of graduates from the Class of 2022 securing such positions within 10 months of graduation. The ’22 class also had the fifth-highest rate of graduates serving in federal clerkships, at 13%.
By nine months after graduation, 98.5% of UVA Law’s 2022 graduates were employed and earning a median salary of $215,000.
• The Virginia Law Review ranks No. 4 among law journals cited by the U.S. Supreme Court from the 2021 term through June 8.
An empirical analysis found that the law review was cited seven times, including three times by Justice Clarence Thomas. The Virginia Law Review was cited twice each by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, who cited no other law journals in that span.