FIRST JOAN N. HUBER FACULTY FELLOWS NAMED AT OHIO STATE

   COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University College of Social and Behavioral Sciences has named three Joan N. Huber Faculty Fellows in the inaugural year of a program designed to reward the college’s strongest scholars.

   Fellows receive an annual cash award of $5,000 for three years to further their research programs. The fellowship program is named in honor of Huber, dean of the college from 1984 to 1992 and senior vice president for academic affairs and provost until 1993.

   “Joan Huber set the highest standards for our faculty, and we strive to maintain those standards,” said Randall Ripley, dean of the college. “These fellowships acknowledge first-rate scholarship by professors who deserve extra recognition for the significant contributions they have made to their disciplines and to Ohio State.”

   The inaugural Huber fellows are:

   -- Lawrence L. Feth of WESTERVILLE, professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science. Feth joined the department in 1988. An accomplished psychoacoustician, Feth concentrates on understanding the way human listeners perceive the pitch of complex tones and the problems that listeners with hearing impairment have in identifying sound. A recipient of grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Feth has published most of his findings in the two most respected and prestigious journals in his field. Feth earned a doctorate in an interdisciplinary bioacoustics program at the University of Pittsburgh in 1969.

   -- Dan Levin of BEXLEY, professor in the Department of Economics. Levin, who joined Ohio State in 1995, is considered exceptional in the field because he produces work on both applied and experimental economics in addition to purely theoretical papers. His publications -- including articles in top economic journals -- have covered such topics as bidding and auctions, international trade, industrial organization and mergers, and the demand for cigarettes. He is most widely known for contributions to literature on auctions. Levin has received NSF grants continuously since 1984; his current grant runs until 2001. Praised as an effective teacher of graduate students and undergraduates, he received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1982.

   -- Richard H. Steckel of UPPER ARLINGTON, professor in the Department of Economics. Steckel also holds an appointment in anthropology and is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is noted for research on living standards, inequality and demographic issues of health, mortality, migration and fertility. The centerpiece of his work is the development of auxology -- the study of human growth -- a discipline uniting economics, history, human biology and demography. Widely published in a variety of top journals, Steckel has received funding from the NSF and several foundations. His most recent edited book is Health and Welfare during Industrialization. Steckel earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and joined Ohio State in 1974.

Contacts:
Lawrence Feth, (614) 292-1643
Dan Levin, (614) 688-4239
Richard Steckel, (614) 292-5008