High Honors to Bodine, Kroemer

October proved to be a stellar month for two people connected to the faculty at UCSB, with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell bestowing an award on one while the other received his from the German ambassador.

Secretary Powell presented Ambassador Barbara K. Bodine, a diplomat-in-residence with the Global and International Studies Program, with the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award. The highest honor given by the department, the career diplomat and UCSB alumna was cited for "courage, leadership, and diplomacy in promoting America's most cherished values and coping with the aftermath of the bombing of the USS Cole."

Bodine, who was ambassador to Yemen at the time of the Cole suicide bombing, is the 2001-02 president of the UCSB Alumni Association, and serves as a lecturer without pay in her academic post.

The Federal Republic of Germany presented its highest civilian honor, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit, to native son and Nobel Laureate Herbert Kroemer, professor of materials and of electrical and computer engineering. Representing his government was Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, who traveled to Los Angeles to conduct the ceremony on behalf of German President Johannes Rau.

"It's a fabulous honor," said Kroemer, who was born in Weimar and received his Ph.D. from the University of Goettingen. He joined the UCSB faculty in 1976.