The Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award is funded from a gift endowment established by the late Edward A. Dickson, Regent of the University of California, to honor outstanding research, scholarly work, teaching, and service performed by an Emeritus or Emerita Professor since retirement.
Two UCLA emeriti professors have been selected to receive the 2024 – 2025 Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award, which includes a prize of $5,000: Professor Emeritus Marvin C. Alkin, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Walter Gekelman.
Marvin C. Alkin, Professor Emeritus of Education retired in 2004, and at the time of his retirement he had been teaching at UCLA for 40 years. Post-retirement, his scholarship, service, teaching and mentorship has continued unabated, and he has demonstrated leadership and commitment to his field of program evaluation, which he helped establish. He has published numerous articles in top journals in his field, has served in editorial roles, and has been the recipient of numerous grants. Of note, he has edited or co-edited two volumes which are so widely used as textbooks that they have gone through several editions in recent years: The first being, Evaluation Roots in 2004, with a second edition in 2013, and co-edited third edition in 2023 with Christina Christie, which provides a framework to compare and contrast varied approaches to program evaluation. The second, Evaluation Essentials: From A-to-Z, was first published in 2011, with second and third editions in 2017 with Anne Vo, and in 2024 with Vo and Christie. Professor Emeritus Alkin has mentored more than 35 graduate students, including 11 for whom he served as dissertation chair. He has been equally active in the classroom, teaching or co-teaching essential graduate courses in evaluation theory and evaluation procedures, a research apprenticeship course, and designed a new course for undergraduate students. He has been similarly active professionally, serving in various capacities as a member of the American Evaluation Association from his retirement through 2020, and receiving their Research in Evaluation Award in 2016.
Walter Gekelman, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy retired in 2020. He has continued to play an essential role in his department, as well as in the scholarly world as a leader in plasma physics. Professor Emeritus Gekelman has stepped in to reassume the directorship of the Basic Plasma Science Facility. With nearly a daily presence in the research laboratory, he provides invaluable service to his colleagues inside and outside UCLA in overseeing the LArge Plasma Device housed at UCLA, which also serves as a national collaborative research facility. The device, which he originally designed and built over the decades, runs constantly and is in high demand. Together with a collaborative team, Professor Gekelman has provided the kind of careful maintenance, repair and oversight continuously since retirement. To that end, he has also been responsible for more than $23 million in federal research grants in plasma physics. His leadership in the field, moreover, has led to a productive and valuable collaboration with private enterprise in the manufacture of computer chips using plasma processing and through the use of specialized equipment has developed new and useful techniques. Not surprisingly, Professor Emeritus Gekelman has maintained his scholarly productivity, publishing more than 14 peer reviewed articles as the lead author, with a student as lead author or to which he has made substantial contribution. In addition, he has given invited talks worldwide. Since retirement, he remains a key research mentor, and students have continued to profit from his teaching and expertise, and praise his intellectual passion, generosity and hands-on approach.
Please join me in wishing them a well-deserved congratulations for outstanding contributions to their respective fields since retirement and for serving as powerful examples of intellectual and professional achievement.
Sincerely,
Michael S. Levine
Chair, Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award Selection Committee
Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs & Personnel
