Professor of English Carla Kaplan was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Public Library Cullman Center Fellowship, and a W.E.B. DuBois Institute Research Fellowship to complete work on her current book project, Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance, forthcoming from HarperCollins in 2009. She is also researching Jessica, the eccentric youngest of England’s storied Mitford Sisters.

Professor of Economics and Social Policy William Dickens is recipient of a prestigious Russell Sage Foundation Fellowship for 2008-09, where he will be part of an interdisciplinary group studying the malleability of cognitive ability. Each year, the Russell Sage Foundation houses a number of scholars  to investigate topics in social and behavioral sciences.

Associate Professor of Biology Rebeca Rosengaus was honored at the White House as one of the nation's top young scientists. Dr. Rosengaus was recognized with a PECASE Award (Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers), the nation's highest honor for professionals at the beginning of their research careers.

Professor of Psychology Harlan Lane was elevated to the highest rank of "Commandeur" in the prestigious French Ordre des Palmes Académiques. The Ordre des Palmes Académiques was founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808 to recognize accomplishment in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and research.

Professor of Music Judith Tick is the first NU faculty member to be inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Election to the American Academy is one of the highest honors in the United States. Past fellows have included Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Albert Einstein. In 2008, Professor Tick gave an invited lecture at the United States Library of Congress. She recently finished a book on the history of American music, Music in the USA.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Penny Beuning was a recipient of the prestigious Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award. This award is given to faculty members who demonstrate the potential to produce an outstanding independent body of scientific scholarship that will make significant contributions to overall education in the chemical sciences.  Of late, Professor Beuning discovered a new and unique DNA binding property of a protein in E. coli.