A researcher whose work could one day help patients with spinal cord injuries get up out of their wheelchairs, a scholar who has published books on everything from the theory of criticism to ethnicity and history of culture, a professor who studies issues in Alzheimer’s disease and the role of religion and spirituality in aging, and a scientist who studies the biology of aging are recipients of the 2012 Faculty Senate Awards.

Mary Bartlett Bunge, the Christine E. Lynn Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and professor of cell biology, neurological surgery, and neurology, is the recipient of the Senate’s Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award.

John Paul Russo, professor of English and Classics, and David Wilson, professor of biology, both of the College of Arts and Sciences, have been awarded the Outstanding Teaching Award.

And Stephen Sapp, professor of religious studies, has been awarded the James W. McLamore Outstanding Service Award.

The award recipients will be honored at a ceremony and reception on Thursday, April 5 at 5 p.m. in Storer Auditorium at the School of Business Administration.

Bunge, the Christine E. Lynn Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and professor of cell biology, neurological surgery, and neurology, is an internationally recognized authority in central nervous system regeneration. She was a pioneer in elucidating the structure and function of cells that form myelin. Her laboratory currently conducts preclinical studies aimed at developing neuroprotective or neuroregenerative therapies for spinal cord injury, and her research is directed toward developing novel combination strategies to improve repair after spinal cord injury.

Bunge is the recipient of a number of other awards, including the Wakeman Award for her seminal contributions to the field of spinal cord injury repair, the Christopher Reeve Research Medal for Spinal Cord Repair, and the Lois Pope LIFE International Research Award. She also is a member of the Iron Arrow Honor Society, the highest honor attained at the University of Miami.

Russo has published books and essays on the theory of criticism, ethnicity, and history of culture. The recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship and three Fulbright Fellowships, most recently in 2006 to the University of Salerno, he has been visiting professor at the universities of Palermo, Rome, and Genoa. He is book review editor of Italian Americana and an editor of Rivista di Studi Nord Americani.

In 1992 he received the UM’s Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award. His Future without a Past: The Humanities in a Technological Society received the 2006 Thomas N. Bonner Award. In 2007 he was named a Cooper Fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is co-author, with UM colleague Robert Casillo, of The Italian in Modernity (University of Toronto Press), which examines the conceptualization of Italy since the end of the Renaissance, taking in such topics as travel writing, gender, modernization and decline, economic and cultural history, national character and stereotypes, immigration, and film.

Sapp has taught at the University of Miami since 1980. His research interests include ethical issues in Alzheimer’s disease, the role of religion and spirituality in aging, the impact of aging on American society, end-of-life, and issues in pediatric and geriatric populations.

He is a former chair of the Governing Council of the Forum on Religion, Spirituality, and Aging (FoRSA) of the American Society on Aging and edited FoRSA’s newsletter, Aging & Spirituality, from 1993 to 1999. Sapp is the founding president of the South Florida Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. From 1990 to 2007, he chaired the Bioethics Committee of Miami Children’s Hospital, where he was Fellow in Clinical Ethics in the Division of Critical Care Medicine in 1996. He is past chair of the University of Miami’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board and chaired the Faculty Senate from 2006 to 2009.

In addition to publishing a number of articles in journals such as Second Opinion, Journal of Religious Gerontology (which he edited from 1994 to 1999), Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, and Journal of Religion and Health, he is the author of three books: Sexuality, the Bible, and Science (1977), Full of Years: Aging and the Elderly in the Bible and Today (1987), and Light on a Gray Area: American Public Policy on Aging (1992).

Wilson, who joined the UM faculty in 1972, is fascinated with the biology of aging. His lab has isolated several mutants in the nematode C. elegans that show extended life expectancy, and he has also contributed to knowledge of the biodemography of aging. The biology of consciousness and mind is another area of interest for Wilson, who is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Gerontological Society of America. The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation have funded his research.

A former dean of UM’s College of Arts and Sciences, Wilson has also served as deputy dean for academic affairs at the medical school, chair of the Faculty Senate, and director of the Undergraduate Neuroscience Program. He is a two-time recipient of UM’s Excellence in Teaching Award and has also received the Department of Biology’s Outstanding Biology Educator Award.

“I love both learning and teaching,” Wilson wrote on his Department of Biology webpage. “I especially enjoy helping students think across disciplinary boundaries, and that is reflected in some of the classes I have occasionally taught, including a course in science and literature and a course covering the cultural and biological aspects of aging with Dr. Steve Sapp of the Religious Studies Department.”