The College of Arts and Sciences honored its 2007 Hall of Fame inductees on Friday, Oct. 26, 2007. Hall of Fame inductees have obtained significant achievement personally or professionally and have demonstrated distinguished professional accomplishments, outstanding character and commitment to community service. The alumni being honored are:
Dr. John E. Keller is a professor emeritus in Hispanic Studies at the University of Kentucky and specializes in medieval literature, specifically brief narrative. He was knighted twice, in 1984 and 1988, by the King of Spain, and was presented with the Order of the Alphonso medal for his research on medieval Spanish literature. Keller has received honorary doctorates from the University of Grenada in Spain and Plymouth State College in New Hampshire, and was named Distinguished Professor at the University of Kentucky in 1986. He resides in Lexington, Ky. and is the donor of the Dr. John E Keller Professorship in Spanish Studies. Keller received his Bachelor of Arts in 1940 and his Master of Arts in 1942 from the University of Kentucky.
Dr. G. Samuel Hurst spent 33 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), researching instrumentation, atomic physics, gaseous electronics and laser physics. He became the first Director of the Institute of Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy at the University of Tennessee and served as a Ford Foundation Professor in collaboration with ORNL from 1963 to 1966. He taught physics at the University of Kentucky in 1966. Hurst holds more than 20 patents for radiation detectors, touch screens, and Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Berea College in 1947, his Master of Science in Physics from the University of Kentucky in 1948, and his Doctorate from the University of Tennessee in 1959.
Dr. Benny G. Johnson is a leading expert in the field of theoretical chemistry and an accomplished scientific software developer. He is President of Quantum Simulations, Inc., a company that develops artificial intelligence tutoring, assessment and professional development software to empower teachers and inspire students. Johnson has contributed to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's NWChem project, which is part of the Department of Energy's effort to solve environmental problems of the Hanford nuclear site in Washington State. As a graduate student at the University of Kentucky, he received an Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award from the Carnegie Mellon University Department of Chemistry. Johnson received his two Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry and Math from the University of Kentucky, and his Doctorate in Theoretical Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University in 1993.
Vivian Shipley has been nominated for the Pulitzer four times and enjoys a widespread reputation as an educator and author, having published seven books of poetry and five chapbooks. Her poetry has won numerous awards, including the Poetry Society of America’s Lucille Medwick Award, the University of Southern California’s Ann Stanford Poetry Prize, and the William Faulkner Society’s Marble Faun Poetry Prize. She was awarded the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to the Literary Community from the Library of Congress Connecticut Center. Shipley received her Bachelor of Arts in 1964 and Master of Arts in English in 1967 from University of Kentucky.