Faculty receive Harvill award for work in art, science

Four faculty members at The Evergreen State College are the first recipients of the Tom Rye Harvill award, providing $5,000 to explore art and science through visual arts, literature, multimedia, dance and theatre.

Faculty Judy Cushing, Ruth Hayes, David McAvity and Richard Weiss were selected for the 2006 award.

Evergreen alumnus Young Harvill '76 created the award to honor his late father, Tom, an electronics engineer, poet, technical writer, early computer operator, radio enthusiast and stargazer.

A biography of Tom Harvill explains that he "read a lot, did a lot, and was great at synthesizing big concepts from detail. He used this in his poetry, and in day-to-day conversation. He was great to talk with because he was always engaged and interested in some new connection, some new way of looking at the world." Tom Harvill died in 1997.

The faculty will use the award for the collaborative development of three-dimensional animated models of forest canopies; data for their project will come from Evergreen's nationally featured Forest Canopy Database Project.

The Tom Rye Harvill award is awarded annually. Competitions take place in February and are open to Evergreen faculty, staff and alumni.

For more information about the award, go to http://www.evergreen.edu/sponsoredresearch/harvillaward.htm.