FIU Council of 100 Taps Rishe for $10,000 Faculty Award

The Florida International University Council of 100 has tapped Naphtali Rishe as the recipient of its first-annual Outstanding Faculty Award - a $10,000 cash prize.

An elite group of significant annual donors to the university, the Council of 100 created the award last May as a way to recognize and support sustained excellence in teaching, research and service among the FIU faculty.

Rishe, a professor of computer science, established the High-Performance Database Research Center at FIU six years ago, which counts NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. departments of Defense and the Interior among its clients.

The Center developed NASA's semantic database management system and, in conjunction with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, established a Regional Applications Center at FIU four years ago. Rishe's team attracts $1.5 million annually in contracts and grants.

For seven years now, members of the Council of 100 have each given at least $1,000 a year to the university. To increase the amount of the Outstanding Faculty prize to $15,000, Council members voluntarily raised their minimum annual dues to $1,500.

The increase will also help build endowment in support of the award, meaning it will be given in perpetuity, according to the group's chairman, Larry Kahn, and president, Lowell Homes. "We believe it's important to recognize the emerging excellence of the FIU faculty and to reward long-term achievement in a meaningful way," said Kahn. "Our faculty, after all, are the faculty of a top-rated research university, as the Carnegie Foundation has indicated through FIU's new ranking. This new award will help focus attention on the very best of those professors and serve as an incentive for top achievers to continue their outstanding work at FIU."

Rishe received the award at FIU's recent Convocation ceremony and was inducted as an ex officio member into the Council at its Oct. 18 meeting. For more information on the award or the Council, please contact University Advancement Vice President Dale Webb at 305-348-2357.