Informatics Selects Three Barwise Scholars

The School of Informatics has named three new master’s students as Barwise Scholars.

“Barwise Scholars exemplify high standards of scholarship and show great promise in their chosen areas of pursuit,” says Dean J. Michael Dunn, Ph.D. “They are appointed as associate instructors or research associates and awarded full tuition and fees for two years.”

The 2005-2006 recipients include:

• Andrew Carter — This Shelbyville, Ind., native plans to study human-computer interaction design. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Informatics in 2004.
• Breanne Kunz — Kunz, of Nampa, Idaho, earned a psychology degree at Boise State University in 2004. At IU, she plans to study human-computer interaction design.
• Harini Gopalakrishnan — Gopalakrishnan, of Tamil Nadu, India, will study bioinformatics. She holds a bachelor᾿s degree in information technology from the University of Chennai (2003).

Barwise Scholars now in their second year include:

• Kenneth Daily — He is currently a student in the bioinformatics program. Daily, who hails from Marion, Ind., earned a bachelor’s in informatics in 2004.
• Apurva Pangam — Pangam, of Mumbai, India, is studying human-computer interaction design. In 2004, he earned a Bachelor of Engineering in information technology from Mumbai University.
• Erik Pukinskis — Pukinskis, of Storrs, Conn., is a student in the human-computer interaction design program. He earned a computer science degree from the University of Connecticut.
• Huijun Wang — Wang is a chemical informatics student and is originally from Shuangpai, People’s Republic of China. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Peking University in 2003.

The Barwise scholars program was created in honor of K. Jon Barwise, widely regarded as one of the great logicians of the second half of the 20th century. He was an expert in mathematical logic who joined the faculty at Indiana University in 1990. Barwise served as college professor of philosophy, computer science, cognitive science and mathematics until his death in 2000.

He was influential in developing the campus’ strategic plan for information technology and was a strong advocate for the creation of a School of Informatics at Indiana University. In 1997, Barwise and fellow logician John Etchemendy shared the EDUCOM Medal for their contribution to logic pedagogy.

EDUCOM is a nonprofit consortium of colleges, universities and corporate associates dedicated to the improvement of higher education through the effective and efficient use of information technology.