Headlines
School of Architecture & Design announces 2021 KU Design Symposium Lecture Series
LAWRENCE — The School of Architecture & Design at the University of Kansas has announced its fall speaker lineup, including designers, artists and activists from a variety of disciplines and professional settings. All lectures are free, public and online. The first presenter, commercial illustrator Marshall Vandruff, speaks at 6 p.m. today, Aug. 26.
Zongwu Cai appointed as Charles Oswald Distinguished Professor of Econometrics
LAWRENCE — Zongwu Cai is recognized internationally for his outstanding professional and academic achievements in economics, econometrics and statistics. After eight years of work at the University of Kansas, Cai received an appointment as the Charles Oswald Distinguished Professor of Econometrics, which began at the start of the fall 2021 semester.
Full stories below.
————————————————————————
Contact: Dan Rolf, School of Architecture & Design, 785-864-3027, [email protected], @ArcD_KU
School of Architecture & Design announces 2021 KU Design Symposium Lecture Series
LAWRENCE — The School of Architecture & Design at the University of Kansas has announced programming for the Fall 2021 KU Design Symposium Lecture Series.
The fall lineup includes designers, artists and activists working in an array of disciplines and professional settings to inspire, educate and challenge through creative inquiry, innovation and socially engaged advocacy.
The KU Design Symposium Lecture Series (formerly the Hallmark Symposium) was established in 1984 to enrich the education of all KU students, and in particular those in the Department of Design, through exposure to designers, artists and educators from across the United States and around the world. In its 35-plus year history, the series has become a cultural asset to the local creative community beyond the Lawrence campus. Each year, students and area professionals view groundbreaking work, explore provocative ideas and learn from the practitioners who are expanding what is possible through art, design and creative action. All lectures, which begin at 6 p.m, are free and open to the public online. See event site for Zoom details.
Aug. 26
Marshall Vandruff began as a commercial illustrator but quickly found a love for teaching. Vandruff has been a teacher of art and storytelling for over 35 years. He’s worked at Fullerton College, California State-Fullerton and Laguna College of Art and Design, among others. He’s also been an instructor and speaker for clients like Blizzard, Rockstar, Sony Online Entertainment, MAD Magazine, Dark Horse Comics and Insomniac Games.
Sep. 23
ClayVon Lowe is design director at Greentouch Home and maintains an independent freelance studio, D Brand Designs. He has designed everything from infant developmental toys for Baby Einstein/Kids2 to home decor products in lighting, kitchen/bath and the nationally acclaimed Kobalt tool brand for Lowe’s Home Improvement.
Oct. 14
Daniel Wong is professor of web design in the communication design department at New York City College of Technology. Since 1999, Wong has been working in the field of medical communications. He has worked as creative director of design and marketing in educational publishing, pharmaceutical marketing and continuing medical education. He has launched corporate products, directed design services and created technology solutions for both established global companies and startups.
Oct. 28
Robb Smigielski is chief design officer at VMLY&R. He leads the implementation of large-scale design and interactive platforms and integrated, digital marketing experiences for companies like Bentley, Virgin Active, PwC, Xbox, Premier League, Kashi, Microsoft, HSBC, Lenovo, Nintendo, Colgate, Bear Naked Granola and the House of Marley.
Nov. 11
Rodrigo Valenzuela is a multimedia artist and professor at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. Valenzuela is an artist working in photography, video, painting and installation. Using autobiographical threads to inform larger universal fields of experience, his work constructs narratives, scenes and stories that point to the tensions found between the individual and communities. Much of his work deals with the experience of undocumented immigrants and laborers.
Dec. 2
Liz Jackson & Alex Haagaard of The Disabled List is a design collaborative and consultancy that engages in disability as creative practice. They created Critical Axis, a community-driven project that collects and analyzes disability representation in media.
-30-
————————————————————————
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.
Tweets by KUnews
————————————————————————
Contact: Evan Riggs, Office of the Provost, 785-864-1085, [email protected], @KUProvost
Zongwu Cai appointed as Charles Oswald Distinguished Professor of Econometrics
LAWRENCE — Zongwu Cai is recognized internationally for his outstanding professional and academic achievements in economics, econometrics and statistics. After eight years of work at the University of Kansas, Cai received an appointment as the Charles Oswald Distinguished Professor of Econometrics, which began at the start of the fall 2021 semester.
“Professor Cai is representative of some of the best minds at KU, and his achievements demonstrate an insatiable spirit for knowledge,” said Barbara Bichelmeyer, provost and executive vice chancellor. “He has stretched the boundaries of economics, statistics and econometric methodology to contribute meaningfully to understanding the world around us and how we can use new information to make it a better place. The university distinguished professors have a celebrated record of teaching and scholarship. His achievements at KU and beyond are a testimony to the power of higher education to transform lives and build better communities. My heartfelt congratulations go to Dr. Cai.”
Cai joined the university as a professor of economics in 2013. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Journal of Econometrics. His primary research focuses on developing and justifying econometric methodology and applications in economics and finance where the econometrics discipline is useful.
“My research builds a methodological bridge connecting real data and economic-financial theories, which enhances people’s understanding of the real world,” Cai said. “I develop new econometric techniques to analyze unknown relationships. The methods I have invented are used to understand how variables influence housing prices, stock returns, foreign direct investment, exchange rates, biochemical oxygen demand, advertising and climate change, among others.”
Cai’s current research interests include theoretical and applied economics, policy and social program evaluation, financial econometrics, quantitative finance, big data research, digital economics and finance, nonlinear and non-stationary time series modeling and their applications in economics and finance.
Cai has published more than 110 papers in international journals, including many top economic, finance and statistics journals. Currently, he is serving as the associate editor or as a member of the editorial board for many international journals, including China Journal of Econometrics, the Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Econometric Theory, Econometric Reviews, Applied Mathematics – A Journal of Chinese Universities, African Finance Journal, Big Data and Cloud Innovation, and the International Journal of Energy Statistics. He also served a guest editor for the special issue of Journal of Econometrics.
He has been the recipient of many awards in his career, with one of the most notable coming in 2013 when he received the Econometric Theory Multa Scripsit Award from Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
Before he arrived at KU, Cai served in a professorship in the mathematics and statistics department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for 15 years and as an adjunct professor at the economics department for eight years. He has also held many other adjunct or guest professor roles at universities around the world.
He was the president of the Chinese Economist Society (CES) for 2018-19 and the chairman of regents of the CES for 2020.
In addition to a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the China University of Geosciences and a master’s degree in statistics from Zhejiang University in China, Cai holds a doctorate in statistics from the University of California, Davis.
Cai’s distinguished professor inaugural lecture has yet to be scheduled.
-30-
————————————————————————
KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]
Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs
