Lakshman Yapa Receives the 2006 President's Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

February 27, 2006

Lakshman Yapa, professor of geography, has been awarded the 2006 President's Award for Excellence in Academic Integration.

The President's Award is given to a full-time faculty member who has exhibited extraordinary achievement in the integration of the University's three-point mission of teaching, research or creative accomplishments and service. The award was established in 1996 to recognize faculty members who have excelled in all three areas of their professions.

Dr. Yapa's current research is focused on Rethinking Urban Poverty: The Philadelphia Field Project, in which he has established an academic program that looks to combine teaching, research and service learning. His research moves away from conventional theories on poverty focused on income to direct substantive questions as to why people in the United States do not have adequate access to necessities such as transportation, housing, good nutrition, and health care. The answers to the substantive questions are very different from those obtained via the income approach.

Congratulations Dr. Yapa!